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Date of Award
2017
Publisher
North Dakota State University
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Awarded
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Program
Mechanical Engineering
Department
Mechanical Engineering
College
Engineering
Faculty Advisor
Ulven, Chad A.
Description
In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the usage of natural fiber reinforced composites in more advanced structural applications. Consequently, the need for improving their mechanical properties as well as service life and long-term behavior modeling and predictions has arisen. In a step towards further development of these materials, in this study, two newly developed biobased resins, derived from soybean oil, methacrylated epoxidized sucrose soyate and double methacrylated epoxidized sucrose soyate are combined with untreated and alkaline treated flax fiber to produce novel biocomposites. Vinyl ester reinforced with flax fiber is used as control in addition to comparing properties of biobased composites against commercial pultruded composites. Effects of alkaline treatment of flax fiber as well as addition of 1% acrylic resin to vinyl ester and the two mentioned biobased resins on mechanical properties are studied. Properties are evaluated in short-term and also, after being exposed to accelerated weathering (i.e. UV and moisture). Moreover, long-term creep of these novel biobased composites and effect of fiber and matrix treatment on viscoelastic behavior is investigated using Time-temperature superposition (TTS) principle. Based on the results of this study, the TTS provides an accelerated method for evaluation of mechanical properties of biobased composites, and satisfactory master curves are achieved by use of this principle. Also, fiber and matrix treatments were effective in increasing mechanical properties of biobased composites in short-term, and treatments delayed the creep response and slowed the process of creep in composites under study in the steady state region. Overall, results of this study reveal the successful production of biocomposites having properties that meet or exceed those of conventional pultruded members while maintaining high biocontent. Composites using treated flax fiber and newly developed resins showed less degradation in properties after accelerated weather exposure. Procedures and methods developed throughout this study, as well as results presented are essential to further development of these novel materials and utilizing them in more advanced structural applications. Results presented in this dissertation have been published as 5 peer reviewed journal articles, 2 book chapters and have been presented in 6 national and international conferences.
Recommended Citation
Amiri, Ali, "Characterization, Long-Term Behavior Evaluation and Thermo-Mechanical Properties of Untreated and Treated Flax Fiber-Reinforced Composites" (2017). Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. 133.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/mech-eng-applied-mechanics/133
Rights
NDSU Policy 190.6.2
Rights Link
https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0003-2852-6971
Handle Identifier
https://hdl.handle.net/10365/26512