Strength failure criteria analysis for a flax fibre reinforced composite

Natural fibre composites are being utilized increasingly in high-performance, structurally demanding applications, in part because of their material properties and in part because they are a more sustainable choice compared to other engineering materials. However, there is a current lack in understanding of best practices for strength modelling of natural fibre composites. This study aims to understand how well common failure criteria predict strength in multidirectional flax fibre composite laminates. Four failure criteria are compared to experimental data from tension and compression tests of flax composite laminates with five different layups. Parametric optimization is performed on each criterion in order to determine the optimal strength, stiffness, and interaction parameters. In conclusion, the Hashin and Puck failure theories are recommended because they have the smallest error compared to experimental data. Values for parallel-to-fibre shear strength are also presented, and they are found to be comparable to the shear strength of conventional glass fibre composites with similar matrix materials.

Title	Strength failure criteria analysis for a flax fibre reinforced composite
Creator	Koh, Rachel
Creator	Madsen, B.
Publisher	Mechanics of Materials
Academic Department	Mechanical Engineering
Division	Engineering
Organization	Lafayette College
Date Issued	September 2018
Date Available	2020-09-01
Type	Article
Language	English
Keyword	failure criteria
	flax
	natural fibre composite
Bibliographic Citation	Koh, R. and B. Madsen (2018 Sept) "Strength failure criteria analysis for a flax fibre reinforced composite." Mechanics of Materials 124: 26-32.
Standard Identifier	Handle 10385/cc08hg010
Standard Identifier	DOI 10.1016/j.mechmat.2018.05.005
Permalink	http://hdl.handle.net/10385/cc08hg010
Rights Statement	In Copyright
Rights Holders	Elsevier Ltd.