Open Access

ARTICLE

Fabrication of Fibre Metal Laminate with Flax and Sugar Palm Fibre based Epoxy Composite and Evaluation of their Fatigue Properties

M. CHANDRASEKAR^1,*, M.R. ISHAK^1,2, S.M. SAPUAN³, Z. LEMAN^2,3, M. JAWAID⁴, R.M.SHAHROZE¹

1 Department of Aerospace Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Malaysia.
2 Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Malaysia.
3 Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Malaysia.
4 Laboratory of Bio-composite Technology, INTROP, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Malaysia.

* Corresponding Author: e-mail:

Journal of Polymer Materials 2018, 35(4), 463-473. https://doi.org/10.32381/JPM.2018.35.04.5

Abstract

Fibre metal laminate (FML) with the carbon, flax and sugar palm fibres were prepared by hand layup and hot press technique. Their tensile and fatigue properties were studied. Results indicate that both the tensile properties and fatigue behaviour was dependent on the natural fibre type and their stacking sequence in the laminate. Flax based FML showed promising results with superior tensile properties and fatigue life. It also displayed fibre bridging mechanism, a phenomenon responsible for the higher fatigue life. Introducing flax in combination with sugar palm fibre resulted in slightly higher fatigue life than the sugar palm fibre based FML. FML with the sugar palm fibres showed the least fatigue life below 1000 cycles and did not exhibit fibre bridging effect. This behaviour indicates that sugar palm fibre may not be a suitable fibre for applications requiring fatigue resistance.

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