EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERISATION OF THE IMPACT RESISTANCE OF FLAX FIBRE REINFORCED COMPOSITE LAMINATES
Résumé
Natural fibres such as flax are a promising replacement for synthetic fibres in polymer composites and
achieve comparable specific properties due to their low density. Recent developments in the
production of technical flax fabrics allow the use of sustainable natural fibres in the manufacture of
structural composite parts. While biocomposites have been demonstrated to satisfy design and
structural integrity requirements, it is suspected that one of the limitations of natural fibre reinforced
composites is their impact resistance. In this paper, the impact behaviour of biocomposites made of
commingled flax and polypropylene fibres is investigated. Composite plates were manufactured using
compression moulding process. Processing parameters such as temperature, pressure and time were
optimized to improve the mechanical properties of composite plates. Impact tests were conducted
using an instrumented drop tower at multiple energies. Qualitative assessment of the impact damage
and the energy absorbed were used to identify the different modes of damage and to identify the
critical energy for complete penetration. The experimental study was supplemented with impact
modelling of the biocomposite laminates using a commercial finite element software. There is good
correlation between the impact response and the FE model.