Browsing by Author "Madsen, Bo"

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Reinforcement efficiency of sisal fibers in composites for structural applications
(Elsevier, 2025-10-15) Ansbert, Clemence; Machunda, Revocatus; Madsen, Bo
Composites made up of natural fibres in a polymer matrix have gained extensive attention due to their environmentally sustainability and good mechanical properties. This is a fundamental study of sisal technical fibres and their reinforcement efficiency. Sisal technical fibres from three harvest times groups have been used for manufacturing of composites with aligned fibres and varying volumetric composition. Based on microscopy of composite cross-sections, the sisal technical fibres were found to consist of about 50 – 200 single fibres with cross-sectional area of 143 ± 57 µm2 and lumen content of 23 ± 9 %. The polymer matrix was found to be able to flow into the lumen of the single fibres, resulting in composites with a relative low porosity content. The volumetric composition of the composites is found to be well predicted using the established fibre and matrix correlated porosity factors. Stiffness and failure stress of the composites were measured in the ranges 6 – 15 GPa and 80 – 220 MPa, respectively. By using micromechanical models, the reinforcement efficiency of the sisal technical fibres was found to be the same for the three harvest times groups, with an overall fibre stiffness of 56 GPa. Based on the used models, stiffness and specific stiffness of the sisal fibre composites were compared with other fibre composites. The predicted maximum specific stiffness of 3.4 GPa0.5 g−1 cm3 for the sisal fibre composites is comparable to other fibre composites, which shows the good potential for using sisal fibres in composites for structural applications.