Abstract
Natural fibres have a plethora of interesting properties that make them suitable for a wide range of applications. In addition to some particular property (e.g. mechanical or thermal capacity), the ability to manufacture a product of comparatively low or even negative carbon footprint is frequently an important consideration. In some cases this claim requires close scrutiny due to the level of wastage in the crop, where fibres are derived from food-stuffs or where there is a need to use aggressive chemical treatments. Compared to the large body of work which has sought to use natural fibres either in a relatively raw state, or with simple processing to achieve yarns akin to wool and other materials for traditional textiles, this paper presents work on a fibre more analogous to technical fibres. Specifically, initial results from the manufacture of fibre reinforced polymer matrix composites using commercially available resin systems are discussed. The fibre is a commercially available viscose rayon of similar imensions to E-glass and in a continuous form. Whilst there are significant inputs in terms of the mechanical work and chemical treatments that are applied to biomass in order to produce the fibre, the fibre has the potential to produce composite laminates with higher fibre volume fractions and can be adopted easily into current fibre processes that utilise continuous synthetic fibres. Whilst the stiffness of the fibre is comparatively low (compared with carbon or glass) the strain to failure is much higher, which requires the use of a resin system with a similar strain to failure. Two such resin systems are considered (with and without the use of a coupling agent). Data are presented for the mechanical properties of the resultant composite materials. Whilst the properties are comparatively modest compared to glass and carbon based systems, they are potentially useful. Further, it is noted that the composite has the ability to recover, to some extent, from plastic yielding.