Flax composites demonstrate superior damping properties to conventional fibres. These materials are already being utilised in some products but the mechanical properties they exhibit are too low for many structural applications. Hybridization of flax with higher strength fibres has been shown to yield materials, which balance damping and load carrying capabilities alongside improved environmental credentials for flax/carbon hybrids. However, the most used composite material is E-glass but the current literature does not facilitate the prediction of damping properties for these hybrid composites, where it is expected that they will behave differently due to the difference in material properties. The woven flax and E-glass fibres specimens embedded with epoxy resin are manufactured via resin infusion to understand the damping and mechanical properties possible from an industrial process and the dominant factors affecting them, rather than the relationships between individual variables and these properties. These experiments allow the hybrids to be profiled for the first time and it is observed that hybridization of flax and E-glass fibres results in an increase in damping, from 1.97 % to 2.63 % for the best hybrid, especially when the flax plies are placed on the outer skin, however the compromise in tensile properties is significant, from 473.28 MPa to 166.53 MPa.

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Increasing environmental consciousness, triggered by global climate change awareness, has found a response in the composite material industry and has pushed the industry representatives to search for environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional materials. To reduce the carbon footprint and minimize the damage to nature, the preference for natural fibres instead of synthetic fibres can be considered a step taken in this context. Today, it is possible to see natural fibre applications in many industrial products, including automobile interior parts. The purpose of using flax fibre in composite materials is not different from conventional fibres, however, their hydrophilic characteristics make flax fibre composites sensitive to temperature and the humidity of the surroundings. This study aims to investigate the moisture content of flax fibre composites as well as their hybrids with E-glass fibres at room temperature by using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).