Open Access

ARTICLE

Micromechanical Viscoelastic Analysis of Flax Fiber Reinforced Bio-Based Polyurethane Composites

by

1 Mechanical Engineering Department, North Dakota State University 111 Dolve Hall, NDSU Dept. 2490, Fargo, North Dakota 58108, USA
2 Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials, North Dakota State University, NDSU Dept. 2760, Fargo, North Dakota 58108, USA

* Corresponding Author:

Journal of Renewable Materials 2015, 3(3), 205-215. https://doi.org/10.7569/JRM.2015.634112

Received 16 January 2015; Accepted 10 June 2015;

Abstract

In this study, a novel, bio-based polyol was used in the formulation of a polyurethane (PU) matrix for a composite material where fl ax fi ber was used as the reinforcement. The viscoelastic properties of the matrix and fl ax fi ber were determined by a linear viscoelastic model through experimentation and the results were used as input for the material properties in the computational model. A fi nite element micromechanical model of a representative volume element (RVE) in terms of repeating unit cells (RUC) was developed to predict the mechanical properties of composites. Six loading conditions were applied on the RUC to predict and defi ne the viscoelastic behavior of the composite unit cell. The time-history of averaged response was determined in terms of stress and strains. The results of this study suggest that applying the overall rate-dependent behavior of fl ax fi ber to the micromechanical model leads to a good agreement between the micromechanical modeling and experimental results. The modeling approach is effi cient and accurate as long as the periodicity in the composite rules. This modeling approach can be used as a powerful algorithm in determining linear and nonlinear properties in material mechanics analysis and characterization.

---

Keywords

---