Glass and aramid fibre-reinforced biobased polymer composites manufactured by vacuum infusion: a statistical
approach to their mechanical properties
Biobased polymer; Laminated composites; RTM; mechanical properties; statistical analysis
This work compares the behaviour between epoxy and novel biobased castor oil matrix composites reinforced with glass and aramid fibres and manufactured by Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM) assisted by vacuum-infusion. A full factorial design (2² - DoE) is applied to statistically identify the effects of the factors, polymer and fibre type, on the tensile, flexural, and impact properties of these composites. The results follow a normal distribution and homogeneity of variances, validating the DoE. Both main factors affect tensile properties. Aramid fibre composites subjected to tensile loads improve by 76% their mechanical performance compared to the glass fibres case, while the epoxy matrix shows a superior behaviour (up to 39%) to the biobased castor oil polymer composites. The epoxy systems provide an increase of up to 46% of the flexural properties; in contrast, the type of fibre used is not statistically significant. The main factors and their interaction significantly affect the impact energy properties, and glass fibre-reinforced castor oil composites have 78% more impact resistance than the other combinations. Finally, the low bulk density of the castor oil polymer combined with aramid fibres however provides equivalent or superior specific performance to other composites that offer adequate absolute properties for secondary structural applications.