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Thermo-compression forming of flax fibre-reinforced polyamide 6 composites: influence of the fibre thermal degradation on mechanical properties

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Abstract

The thermal degradation of plant-based fibres at high temperature is a main issue when manufacturing vegetal fibres/thermoplastic composites due to the high melting point of engineering polymers such as polyamide 6 (PA6). This paper aims at investigating the influence of the thermo-compression forming process parameters, such as the temperature and consolidation time, on the mechanical properties of continuous flax fibre-reinforced PA6 composites. Woven fabric flax/PA6 composites were prepared by compression moulding using a film-stacking process under different consolidation conditions according to a two-factor Doehlert design of experiments. Tensile and flexural properties were assessed. A second-order polynome was used to correlate the processing parameters and the mechanical properties (i.e. stiffness, strength and strain at break). Fracture mode changes with the consolidation conditions. The weakening of the fibres and eventually of the composite performances was ascribed to the increase in flax fibre thermal degradation.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Dehondt Technologies® (France) for kindly supplying flax fibre fabric (Nattex N/2D600) and to the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region (France) for funding Hedi Nouri’s post-doctoral grant (Contract No. 14002212). The authors also acknowledge International Campus on Safety and Intermodality in Transportation (CISIT), European Community (FEDER) and Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region for funding the TGA equipment.

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  1. Department of Polymers and Composites Technology & Mechanical Engineering, Mines Douai, 941 rue Charles Bourseul CS 10838, 59508, Douai, France

    Shaoxiong Liang, Hedi Nouri & Eric Lafranche

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  1. Shaoxiong Liang
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  2. Hedi Nouri
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  3. Eric Lafranche
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Correspondence to Shaoxiong Liang.

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Liang, S., Nouri, H. & Lafranche, E. Thermo-compression forming of flax fibre-reinforced polyamide 6 composites: influence of the fibre thermal degradation on mechanical properties. J Mater Sci 50, 7660–7672 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-015-9330-4

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