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Mechanical Stability of Carbon/Ramie Fiber Hybrid Composites Under Hygrothermal Aging

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Abstract

Hybrid composites containing carbon fibers and ramie fibers in an epoxy polymer matrix were prepared (denoted as CRFRP), after which the composites were immersed in distilled water at three different temperatures (20, 40, and 60 °C) for a period up to 2 months. Water absorption tests and static (tensile and flexural) and dynamic (low-velocity impact) mechanical tests were then conducted on the hygrothermally-treated composites to explore their hydrothermal aging mechanism. Results show that water uptake by CRFRP composites was enhanced by increasing the hygrothermal treatment temperature or aging time, with the water uptake obeying a Fickian diffusion model. Hygrothermal aging decreased the tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength and flexural modulus of the CRFRP composites, though enhanced the impact absorption energy since the ramie fibers had greater plasticity and deformability after aging. Based on the experimental findings, a plausible mechanism was developed for the hydrothermal aging of the hybrid composites. Importantly, CRFRP composites were lighter than carbon fiber-reinforced composites (CFRP), whilst offering similar all-round performance, suggesting CRFRP composites may be useful in applications where CFRP composites have traditionally been used.

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Data Availability Statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this manuscript.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Key Laboratory of High Performance fibers & products, Ministry of Education, Donghua University, Shanghai, P. R. China 201620. And GINW acknowledges funding support from the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Air Transportation, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Ming Cai, Jiwei Liu, Xian Zhang & Dazhong Wang

  2. College of Textiles, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Ming Cai & Baozhong Sun

  3. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Nanyang, 639798, Singapore

    Ming Cai

  4. School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Qihua Ma

  5. School of Chemical Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    Geoffrey I. N. Waterhouse

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  1. Ming Cai
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Contributions

Ming Cai: Conceptualization, Supervision, Investigation, Validation, Data Curation, Writing-Review & Editing. Jiwei Liu ：Software, Visualization, Writing-Review & Editing. Xian Zhang：Experimentation, Writing-Original Draft. Dazhong Wang : Writing-Review & Editing. Qihua Ma: Visualization.Geoffrey I.N.Waterhouse: Writing Review & Editing. Baozhong Sun: Supervision, Writing-Review & Editing.

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Correspondence to Ming Cai.

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Cai, M., Liu, J., Zhang, X. et al. Mechanical Stability of Carbon/Ramie Fiber Hybrid Composites Under Hygrothermal Aging. Appl Compos Mater (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10443-024-10211-6

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