Macroscopic Analysis of Interfacial properties of Flax/PLLA biocomposites

Antoine Le Duigou (1) , Peter Davies , Christophe Baley (1)

1 LIMATB - Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Matériaux de Bretagne

This study presents results from a study of the mechanical behaviour of flax reinforced Poly(L-Lactic Acid) (PLLA) under in-plane shear and mode I interlaminar fracture testing. Slow cooling of the unreinforced polymer has been shown to develop crystalline structure, causing improvement in matrix strength and modulus but a drop in toughness. The in-plane shear properties of the composite also drop for the slowest cooling rate, the best combination of in-plane shear performance and delamination resistance is noted for an intermediate cooling rate, (15.5°C/min). The values of G obtained at this cooling rate are higher than those for equivalent glass/polyester composites. These macro-scale results have been correlated with microdroplet interface debonding and matrix characterization measurements from a previous study. The composite performance is dominated by the matrix rather than the interface.

Mots clés: A. Fibres

Domaines: Matériaux

Antoine Le Duigou, Peter Davies, Christophe Baley. Macroscopic Analysis of Interfacial properties of Flax/PLLA biocomposites. Composites Science and Technology, 2010, 70 (11), pp.1612. ⟨10.1016/j.compscitech.2010.06.001⟩. ⟨hal-00666484⟩