Damping Properties of Flax/Carbon Hybrid Epoxy/Fibre-Reinforced Composites for Automotive Semi-Structural Applications

Abstract

The ever-increasing demand for environmentally friendly biocomposites for use in various engineering applications requires a strong understanding of these materials properties, especially in automotive applications. This study focused on investigating how the stacking sequence and fibre orientation impacts the damping properties of hybrid flax/carbon fibre-reinforced composites. Different hybrid carbon fibre/flax fibre-reinforced composites using epoxy resin as the matrix were manufactured using vacuum-assisted resin infusion moulding technique. Each composite material was then tested for tensile properties using a universal testing machine, and the damping experiment was conducted using an impulse hammer and a Laser Doppler Vibrometer. The tensile study found out that adding a flax layer to the external layers of carbon fibre laminate reduced Young’s modulus by 28% for one layer and 45% for two layers. It was noted that when the fibre orientation of the internal layer of [C/F2/C]s was replaced with two ±45° layers, this had a very little effect on Young’s modulus but reduced the ultimate tensile strength by 61%. This experimental study also showed that the most important layer when it comes to damping properties is the external layers. By adding an external flax layer into an epoxy/carbon fibre-reinforced composite considerably enhanced its damping ratio by 53.6% and by adding two layers increased it by 94%. The results indicated a high potential for the automotive semi-structural applications to improve damping properties of the vehicle.

A Review on the Parameters Affecting the Mechanical, Physical, and Thermal Properties of Natural/Synthetic Fibre Hybrid Reinforced Polymer Composites

“…e study showed that lamination sequences significantly influence the overall mechanical properties of the hybrid composites. A study by Ameur et al [184] demonstrated that the ultimate tensile strength and Young's modulus of carbon/flax fibre hybrid composites increased with the number of outer carbon layers. e experimental results reported ultimate tensile strength and Young's modulus of 935 MPa and 62 GPa, respectively, for carbon/carbon/flax/ flax/carbon/carbon hybrid in comparison with 522 MPa and 35 MPa for carbon/flax/flax/flax/flax/carbon hybrid.…”

The Usage of Natural Fibers for Automotive Applications

“…Fairlie and Njuguna, [ 15 ] studied the damping properties of flax/carbon/epoxy composites fabricated with vacuum‐assisted resin infusion molding. The authors conducted tensile test and damping experiments on the samples.…”

Identifying the Influence of Stacking Sequence on Mechanical and Vibration Properties of Bamboo/Glass‐Epoxy Composites

“…[ 7 ] The outer layers play an important role in studying damping property encouraging its application for automotive semi‐structural applications. [ 8 ]…”

“…[7] The outer layers play an important role in studying damping property encouraging its application for automotive semi-structural applications. [8] In the hot press fabrication method, Hebel et al [9] examined the impact of processing parameters on the tensile properties of a bamboo fiber-reinforced composite. They discovered that the optimum value of process parameters is 100 °C and 20 MPa with a maximum tensile strength of ≈180 MPa.…”