Mechanical properties of composites reinforced by flax Godfrey Bwire

1. Mechanical properties of composites reinforced by flaxGodfrey Bwire Supervisor: Dr E SazhinaDivision of Engineering and Product Design, School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics Conclusion The main novelty of the research is addressed in impact testing of the ClaflaxTM which has shown a significant increase in the impact energy, Hence increase in blast resistance. Discussion Flax has the environmental benefits as renewable and degradable material. Flax dust is a waste product at zero cost; its valorisation is the focus of the project. The new compositeClaflaxTM has higher toughness than pure clay which gives it a good advantage in the construction industry . ClaflaxTM has shown a higher standard deviation in comparison with pure clay. This can be attributed to uneven samples’ sizes under new methodololgy. On the other hand the standard deviation is the same as by more precise (but cumbersome) method by previous researcher, Miss C Sorensen, 2010 Results by C.Sorensen, 2010 agree with the new results: • Aim and Objectives • The aim of the project is to • To explore mechanical properties of clay composites reinforced by flax waste products (flax dust) • To review the environmental benefits of challenges in flax processing and applications • To assess the environmental and structural benefits and potential for industry implementation of the new composites Motivation A review on the environmental benefits of flax composites and the exploration of the challenges in flax processing and its applications has shown the growing importance of renewable materials. Natural fibres are sustainable, cheap, and renewable. The use of flax fibers and its by products such as flax chaff and flax dust for construction is underdeveloped when compared with hemp - based materials such as Hemcrete. 1. EU INTERREG project FLAX Technical meeting at the university of Brighton, UK, 20th January 2011 The attendance of the conference by the author has been sponsored by INTERREG project FLAX of PABS, UoB. This has allowed to get first-hand information on current knowledge and applications of natural fibres. The Conference gave the motivation for the formulation of the research topic with applications for construction industry. Opportunities in Flax industry are outlined by the INTERREG FLAX partners from flax factory in Northern France. Flax processing produces by-products, such as flax chaff and flax dust. Flax chaff can be used for cattle and it commands prices of 0.3Euro per kg. Flax dust is a waste product with zero cost. Hence the focus of flax dust 2. Mud bricks for small-scale construction in Africa Mr O Abolade (MSc project, University of Brighton, 2010) has outlined the environmental and structural benefits of mud bricks for construction industry This focused the research on increasing toughness of mud bricks and their blast resistance. • The experimental setup: Charpy rig and prepared clay samples. • Testing under dynamic loading under Charpy test is important for applications under seismic conditions and blast resistance • Results of the experiment: The impact energy of clay reinforced by flax dust has been found to be higher than that of the conventional clay from the same batch. The new material is named Claflax. • Analysis: This is because inclusion of flax dust makes it a particle –reinforced composite. • Maximal content of flax dust by weight is established as 3.6% Impact Energy in Joules: Average St Dev Limits: • Impact Energy of clay with flax dust = 0.7 0.2 0.9 - 0.5 • Impact Energy of clay without flax dust =0.38 0.05 0.43 -0.33 • Dissemination of the research: • Attendance of the INTERREG FLAX project workshop on Flax material on 20th January 2011 • Recommendations for future research: • Detailed investigation of the effect of the flax dust content on the impact strength ofClaflaxTM • Effect of water content on ClaflaxTM • Focus of the project • The project focuses on new composite material (ClaflaxTM ) designed by adding flax dust into clay matrix • Potential use in blast resistant structures is explored by Charpy testing of flax composites under dynamic loading Acknowledgements : Many thanks to my examiner Dr C Knight for constructive feedback. My supervisor Dr. Elena Sazhina, and technical staff at the University of Brighton, Mr Tony Brown and Mr Shawn Maunula, are thanked for ongoing support.