Pantano Antonio, Militello Carmelo, Bongiorno Francesco, Zuccarello Bernardo
Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy.
Polymers (Basel). 2021 Dec 31;14(1):154. doi: 10.3390/polym14010154.
The use of natural fiber-based composites is on the rise in many industries. Thanks to their eco-sustainability, these innovative materials make it possible to adapt the production of components, systems and machines to the increasingly stringent regulations on environmental protection, while at the same time reducing production costs, weight and operating costs. Optimizing the mechanical properties of biocomposites is an important goal of applied research. In this work, using a new numerical approach, the effects of the volume fraction, average length, distribution of orientation and curvature of fibers on the Young's modulus of a biocomposite reinforced with short natural fibers were studied. Although the proposed approach could be applied to any biocomposite, sisal fibers and an eco-sustainable thermosetting matrix (green epoxy) were considered in both simulations and the associated experimental assessment. The results of the simulations showed the following effects of the aforementioned parameters on Young's modulus: a linear growth with the volume fraction, nonlinear growth as the length of the fibers increased, a reduction as the average curvature increased and an increase in stiffness in the - plane as the distribution of fiber orientation in the z direction decreased.
天然纤维基复合材料在许多行业的应用正在增加。由于其生态可持续性，这些创新材料使得零部件、系统和机器的生产能够适应日益严格的环境保护法规，同时降低生产成本、重量和运营成本。优化生物复合材料的机械性能是应用研究的一个重要目标。在这项工作中，采用一种新的数值方法，研究了纤维的体积分数、平均长度、取向分布和曲率对短天然纤维增强生物复合材料杨氏模量的影响。尽管所提出的方法可应用于任何生物复合材料，但在模拟和相关实验评估中均考虑了剑麻纤维和一种生态可持续的热固性基体（绿色环氧树脂）。模拟结果表明了上述参数对杨氏模量的如下影响：随体积分数呈线性增长，随纤维长度增加呈非线性增长，随平均曲率增加而降低，以及随z方向纤维取向分布减少而使平面内刚度增加。
