Analytical investigation of green composite lamina utilizing natural fiber to strengthen PLA

Abstract

This work’s main goal is to investigate the effects of the natural fiber orientation angle on the lamina’s engineering constants, such as the shear modulus, major Poisson’s ratio, longitudinal and transverse Young’s moduli, and lamina level shear coupling coefficients. The PLA matrix of the three green composite laminas under study is reinforced with natural fiber. The three natural fibers under study are flax, jute, and bamboo fibers. The study assesses the performance of three PLA laminas reinforced with natural fibers for each of the previously listed engineering constants. The behavior of the green composite lamina for various fiber volume fractions is also presented in this study. This analytical investigation employs the macromechanics of lamina to do the examination. The investigation’s findings demonstrated that the volume % and fiber orientation have a considerable impact on the lamina’s engineering constants. The study offers a comprehensive variation of the lamina’s engineering constants for each fiber orientation angle between 0 and 90° and for each fiber volume fraction between 0 % (entirely matrix) and 100 % (completely fibers) in steps of 5 %. The outcomes of the presented study will help in the design of the facesheets for the composite sandwich structures. The results presented can be used to check the viability of using natural fibers to strengthen different polymer matrices. Bamboo-PLA lamina outperforms flax-PLA and jut-PLA laminae.

Keywords

• Polylactic acid (PLA)
• Natural fiber reinforced green composites (NFRGCs)
• Bamboo
• Flax
• Jute
• Fiber volume fraction and engineering constants