Open Access

ARTICLE

Numerical Modelling of the Transient Hygroscopic Behavior of Flax-Epoxy Composite

Wajdi Zouari^1,*, Mustapha Assarar¹, Abderrazak Chilali², Rezak Ayad¹, Hocine Kebir³

1 Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, ITheMM EA 7548, 51097, Reims, France.
2 Ecole Nationale Préparatoire aux Etudes d’Ingéniorat, 16012, Rouïba, Algeria.
3 Sorbonne Universités, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, Laboratoire Roberval (UMR 7337), 60205, Compiègne, France.

*Corresponding Author: Wajdi Zouari. Email: .

Journal of Renewable Materials 2019, 7(9), 839-853. https://doi.org/10.32604/jrm.2019.06773

Abstract

This contribution deals with the development of a three-node triangular plane finite element to analyze the transient hygroscopic behavior of 2/2 twill flax fabric-reinforced epoxy composite. Several plates of this material were fabricated using the vacuum infusion process and composite specimens were then cut and aged in tap water at room temperature until saturation. To simplify, a plane modelling of water diffusion in the aged specimens is adopted and Fick’s model is used to describe the water diffusion kinetics. To highlight the heterogeneity of the flax-epoxy samples, the twill flax fabrics waviness is modelled with a sinusoidal undulation. In particular, we show that the proposed finite element formulation allows estimating the flax fiber radial diffusion coefficient by an inverse approach.

---

Keywords

---

Citations