Hrushikesh Abhyankar | Cranfield University (original) (raw)

Papers by Hrushikesh Abhyankar

Materials, 2013

This work describes flax fibre reinforced polymeric composites with recent developments. The prop... more This work describes flax fibre reinforced polymeric composites with recent developments. The properties of flax fibres, as well as advanced fibre treatments such as mercerization, silane treatment, acylation, peroxide treatment and coatings for the enhancement of flax/matrix incompatibility are presented. The characteristic properties and characterizations of flax composites on various polymers including polypropylene (PP) and polylactic acid, epoxy, bio-epoxy and bio-phenolic resin are discussed. A brief overview is also given on the recent nanotechnology applied in flax composites.

Fibers, 2015

Flax fibre bio-epoxy composites have not found many commercial uses in structural applications on... more Flax fibre bio-epoxy composites have not found many commercial uses in structural applications on account of their lack of cost efficiency and high susceptibility to environmental changes. Non-woven flax mats were subjected to alkali, acetylation, silane and enzymatic treatment, and then combined with untreated unidirectional (UD) flax fabrics to make hybrid flax bio-epoxy composites. Mechanical and environmental resistance (aging) tests were performed on the treated flax fibres. The glass transition temperature was detected at about 75 °C with little effect of treatments. Untreated composites were found to have a tensile strength of 180 MPa while no significant improvement was observed for any of the treatments, which are also not environmentally friendly. The amiopropyltriethoxysilane (APS) composites after Xenon aging, retained the tensile strength of 175 MPa and a modulus of 11.5 GPa, while untreated composites showed 35% reduction in elastic modulus.

A significant method of reducing CO 2 emissions in road vehicles is to reduce the vehicle mass. O... more A significant method of reducing CO 2 emissions in road vehicles is to reduce the vehicle mass. One means in which this can be achieved is to adopt lightweight materials such as thermoplastic composites. Thermoplastics offer advantages in term of weight when compared to conventional steel and aluminium casting. In this study thermal mechanical testing has been conducted on two types of commercial polyamide 66 (PA66) with 35% short glass fibre reinforcement. One of the materials was impact modified with an elastomer to increase material toughness. Experimental results showed both the reinforced PA66 materials to be temperature dependent. All test results demonstrated the trade-off in the mechanical properties of the two materials especially the impact modified. PA66 with 35% glass fibre exhibits the best tensile strength, flexural strength and modulus for each temperature tested. Whereas the impact modified PA66 with 35% glass fibre exhibits the higher strain and toughness for each t...

PLA emerged as a promising polymer because of its property as a compostable, biodegradable thermo... more PLA emerged as a promising polymer because of its property as a compostable, biodegradable thermoplastic made from renewable sources. PLA can be polymerized from monomers (Lactide or Lactic acid) obtained by fermentation processes from renewable sources such as corn starch or sugarcane. For PLA synthesis, ring opening polymerization (ROP) of Lactide monomer is one of the preferred methods. In the literature, the technique mainly developed for ROP of PLA is based on metal/bimetallic catalyst (Sn, Zn and Al) or other organic catalysts in suitable solvent. However, the PLA synthesized using such catalysts may contain trace elements of the catalyst which may cause toxicity. This work estimated the usefulness and drawbacks of using different catalysts as well as effect of alternative energies and future aspects for PLA production.

Industrial Crops and Products

Due to the inherent environmental benefits of using renewable materials, mimosa tannin resin (a n... more Due to the inherent environmental benefits of using renewable materials, mimosa tannin resin (a natural phenolic resin) reinforced by flax fibres could offer desirable characteristics (lightweight, economic and low environmental impact) aiming at reducing carbon footprint of superlight electric vehicles. The non-woven flax mats were chemically treated (alkali, acetylation, silane and enzymatic treatment) to prepare tannin composites through compression moulding (130 °C/35 min/1.5 MPa). The change in fibre morphology was seen in SEM (scanning electronic microscope) images. The treatments (except enzymatic) showed significant improvement in tensile properties, along with enhancement (acetylation) in flexural properties, but little effect on impact resistance for all treatments. APS (aminopropyl triethoxy siloxane) treated composites showed highest tensile strength of 60 MPa and modulus of 7.5 GPa. BTCA (butanetetracarboxylic acid) treatment led to the highest flexural strength of up t...

Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2015

ABSTRACT Nanomaterials are one of the promising technologies of this century. The Project on Emer... more ABSTRACT Nanomaterials are one of the promising technologies of this century. The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies [1] reports more than 1600 consumer products based on nanotechnology that are currently on the market and advantages link to the reinforcement of polymeric materials using nano-fillers are not to demonstrate anymore. However, the concerns about safety and its consumer perception can slow down the acceptance of nanocomposites. Indeed, during its life-cycle, a nanotechnology-based product can release nano-sized particles exposing workers, consumers and environment and the risk involved in the use and disposal of such particles is not well known. The current legislation concerning chemicals and environment protection doesn't explicitly cover nanomaterials and changes undergone by nanoparticles during the products’ life cycle. Also, the possible physio-chemical changes that the nanoparticles may undergo during its life cycle are unknown. Industries need a standard method to evaluate nanoparticles release during products’ life cycle in order to improve the knowledge in nanomaterials risk assessment and the legislation, and to inform customers about the safety of nanomaterials and nanoproducts. This work aims to propose a replicable method in order to assess the release of nanoparticles during the machining of nanocomposites in a controlled environment. For this purpose, a new experimental set-up was implemented and issues observed in previous methods (background noise due to uncontrolled ambient environment and the process itself, unrepeatable machining parameters) were solved. A characterisation and validation of the chamber used is presented in this paper. Also, preliminary testing on drilling of polymer-based nanocomposites (Polyamide-6/Glass Fibre reinforced with nano-SiO2) manufactured by extrusion and injection moulding were achieved.

The hydrophobicity of flax fibres often leads to the poor fibre/hydrophobic matrix adhesion. The ... more The hydrophobicity of flax fibres often leads to the poor fibre/hydrophobic matrix adhesion. The flax fibres are amenable to modification so as to solve the problem. Alkali, acetylation, silane treatment and enzymatic treatment were employed for the flax fibre mats in author’s study. To understand how these treatments affect the physical properties, infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) were conducted on flax fibres. It was found that all the treatments result in the removal of pectin component within the primary cell wall due to the disappearance of the characteristic peak at 1735 cm-1. Comparing with the untreated fibres, the onset degradation temperature of treated ones decreased, however, the peak of the maximum decomposition rate shifted to high temperatures, indicating a better thermal stability.

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2012

Innovation is often driven by changes in government policies regulating the industries, especiall... more Innovation is often driven by changes in government policies regulating the industries, especially true in case of the automotive. Except weight savings, the strict EU regulation of 95% recyclable material-made vehicles drives the manufactures and scientists to seek new 'green materials' for structural applications. With handing at two major drawbacks (production cost and safety), ECHOSHELL is supported by EU to develop and optimise structural solutions for superlight electric vehicles by using bio-composites made of highperformance natural fibres and resins, providing enhanced strength and bio-degradability characteristics. Flax reinforced tannin-based composite is selected as one of the candidates and were firstly investigated with different fabric lay-up angles (non-woven flax mat, UD, [0, 90°] 4 and [0, +45°, 90°, -45°] 2 ) through authors' work. Some of the obtained results, such as tensile properties and SEM micrographs were shown in this conference paper. The UD flax reinforced composite exhibits the best tensile performance, with tensile strength and modulus of 150 MPa and 9.6 MPa, respectively. It was observed that during tension the oriented-fabric composites showed some delamination process, which are expected to be eliminated through surface treatment (alkali treatment etc.) and nanotechnology, such as the use of nano-fibrils. Failure mechanism of the tested samples were identified through SEM results, indicating that the combination of fibre pull-out, fibre breakage and brittle resins failure mainly contribute to the fracture failure of composites.

Industrial Crops and Products, 2013

Flax reinforced tannin-based composites have a potential to be used in vehicle applications due t... more Flax reinforced tannin-based composites have a potential to be used in vehicle applications due to the environmental advantages and good mechanical properties. In this paper, the effects of fibre configuration on mechanical properties of flax/tannin composites were investigated for nonwoven and woven fabric lay-up angles (UD, [0 • , 90 • ] 2 and [0 • , +45 • , 90 • , −45 • ] 2 ). The tannin/flax composites were prepared by compression moulding. The manufactured specimens were then characterized for quasi-static tensile properties, dynamic mechanical properties and low-energy impact performance. Failure mechanism was further investigated using microscopy and demonstrated the need for further adhesion improvements. The study shows that the UD fabric reinforced composite performs better in tensile strength and modulus whereas [0 • , +45 • , 90 • , −45 • ] 2 composite provides the best impact energy absorption performance.

2008 10th Electronics Packaging Technology Conference, 2008

Electronics manufacturers are under legislative pressure to find alternatives to non-recyclable t... more Electronics manufacturers are under legislative pressure to find alternatives to non-recyclable thermoset PCBs for production of electronics. A candidate process being developed at Loughborough University uses injection over-moulding to embed components in a polymer matrix, prior to interconnection by electroplating of the moulding or by printing of a conductive ink. Crucial to the manufacturing quality and reliability of products made

At Loughborough University an environmentally friendly manufacturing process for electronic circu... more At Loughborough University an environmentally friendly manufacturing process for electronic circuits, involving the embedding of electronic components in thermoplastic resins via insert injection moulding, is under development. Once embedded, interconnection between components is achieved by subsequently plating or printing metallisation patterns on the moulding surface. The environmental benefits of the process arise from the enhanced separability of components, metals and matrix at end of life compared to conventional solder mounting of components on a thermoset polymer based circuit board. The separated components then form concentrated waste streams allowing improved efficiency of material recovery. It was observed in earlier work that intimate contact between the overmoulded thermoplastic resin, and the legs of the electronic components, was crucial for the integrity of the electrical interconnection. If small gaps open up around the embedded components after solidification these will either act as weak points in the electrical interconnect pattern, or prevent electrical interconnect being achieved at all. The quality of the component/overmould interface is likely to depend both on material-material interactions, i.e. adhesion between overmould and insert surfaces, and on the solidification history of the overmould material. What reports there are in the literature come to conflicting conclusions on the importance of wetting for adhesion and joint strength obtained in insert moulding. In principle the wetting of metals by polymers, and hence material-material adhesion, is expected to improve with rise in the temperature of the interface. At the same time, an increased insert temperature is expected to reduce the cooling rate of the thermoplastic after injection, and so increase the crystal fraction and degree of shrinkage of the solidified material in the vicinity of the insert. The study which is reported here was undertaken to determine quantitatively the imp- - ortance of these two factors on the joint strength obtained by overmoulding metals, and in particular tinned surfaces, with thermoplastic resin. Data from systematic measurements of the variation with insert temperature of the joint strength measured by pull out force measurements, for tin coated wire overmoulded with six different thermoplastics, are reported. In most cases the peak strength occurred for insert temperature near the glass transition temperature of the overmould material. The maximum strength variation with temperature observed for a single material was 42%, which occurred for PMMA between room temperature and 80°C. By contrast the wetting of the same set of polymers on tin, in high temperature contact angle measurements, was observed to uniformly improve (reducing contact angle) with increase in system temperature. The results are of wider interest than electronics, because of the sparsity of reports in the literature on factors affecting overmould/insert joint strengths in the industrially important process of insert moulding.

Materials & Design, 2015

ABSTRACT In this work, three-phase nanocomposites using multiscale reinforcements were studied to... more ABSTRACT In this work, three-phase nanocomposites using multiscale reinforcements were studied to evaluate the influence of nanofillers on static and dynamic mechanical properties at varying temperature conditions. In particular, short-fibres reinforced polyamide 6 (30 wt.%) composites with various weight fractions of montmorillonite (OMMT) and nanosilica (SiO2), manufactured and investigated. Quasi-static tensile properties were investigated at room temperature and also at 65 °C just above the polyamide 6 (PA6) glass transition temperature. The low velocity impact tests were conducted on the manufactured cone-shaped structures to evaluate the crash behaviour and energy absorption capability. The study results shows that the increase of the weight percentage level of OMMT in PA6/glass fibre (30 wt.%) composite made the nanocomposites more brittle and simultaneously deteriorated the tensile properties. SiO2 nanofiller at 1 wt.% was found to be the optimum ratio for improving tensile properties in silica-based nanocomposites studied. It was further noted that for both types of nanofillers, the crashing behaviour and energy absorption in dynamic properties were improved with increase in nanofillers weight percentage in the composites. The study also shows that the brittleness behaviour of the nanocomposites investigated is associated to the fibre/matrix interaction which is dependent on the nanofiller type and has significant effect on crash modes observed.

International Research Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2015

Materials, 2013

This work describes flax fibre reinforced polymeric composites with recent developments. The prop... more This work describes flax fibre reinforced polymeric composites with recent developments. The properties of flax fibres, as well as advanced fibre treatments such as mercerization, silane treatment, acylation, peroxide treatment and coatings for the enhancement of flax/matrix incompatibility are presented. The characteristic properties and characterizations of flax composites on various polymers including polypropylene (PP) and polylactic acid, epoxy, bio-epoxy and bio-phenolic resin are discussed. A brief overview is also given on the recent nanotechnology applied in flax composites.

Materials, 2013

This work describes flax fibre reinforced polymeric composites with recent developments. The prop... more This work describes flax fibre reinforced polymeric composites with recent developments. The properties of flax fibres, as well as advanced fibre treatments such as mercerization, silane treatment, acylation, peroxide treatment and coatings for the enhancement of flax/matrix incompatibility are presented. The characteristic properties and characterizations of flax composites on various polymers including polypropylene (PP) and polylactic acid, epoxy, bio-epoxy and bio-phenolic resin are discussed. A brief overview is also given on the recent nanotechnology applied in flax composites.

Fibers, 2015

Flax fibre bio-epoxy composites have not found many commercial uses in structural applications on... more Flax fibre bio-epoxy composites have not found many commercial uses in structural applications on account of their lack of cost efficiency and high susceptibility to environmental changes. Non-woven flax mats were subjected to alkali, acetylation, silane and enzymatic treatment, and then combined with untreated unidirectional (UD) flax fabrics to make hybrid flax bio-epoxy composites. Mechanical and environmental resistance (aging) tests were performed on the treated flax fibres. The glass transition temperature was detected at about 75 °C with little effect of treatments. Untreated composites were found to have a tensile strength of 180 MPa while no significant improvement was observed for any of the treatments, which are also not environmentally friendly. The amiopropyltriethoxysilane (APS) composites after Xenon aging, retained the tensile strength of 175 MPa and a modulus of 11.5 GPa, while untreated composites showed 35% reduction in elastic modulus.

A significant method of reducing CO 2 emissions in road vehicles is to reduce the vehicle mass. O... more A significant method of reducing CO 2 emissions in road vehicles is to reduce the vehicle mass. One means in which this can be achieved is to adopt lightweight materials such as thermoplastic composites. Thermoplastics offer advantages in term of weight when compared to conventional steel and aluminium casting. In this study thermal mechanical testing has been conducted on two types of commercial polyamide 66 (PA66) with 35% short glass fibre reinforcement. One of the materials was impact modified with an elastomer to increase material toughness. Experimental results showed both the reinforced PA66 materials to be temperature dependent. All test results demonstrated the trade-off in the mechanical properties of the two materials especially the impact modified. PA66 with 35% glass fibre exhibits the best tensile strength, flexural strength and modulus for each temperature tested. Whereas the impact modified PA66 with 35% glass fibre exhibits the higher strain and toughness for each t...

PLA emerged as a promising polymer because of its property as a compostable, biodegradable thermo... more PLA emerged as a promising polymer because of its property as a compostable, biodegradable thermoplastic made from renewable sources. PLA can be polymerized from monomers (Lactide or Lactic acid) obtained by fermentation processes from renewable sources such as corn starch or sugarcane. For PLA synthesis, ring opening polymerization (ROP) of Lactide monomer is one of the preferred methods. In the literature, the technique mainly developed for ROP of PLA is based on metal/bimetallic catalyst (Sn, Zn and Al) or other organic catalysts in suitable solvent. However, the PLA synthesized using such catalysts may contain trace elements of the catalyst which may cause toxicity. This work estimated the usefulness and drawbacks of using different catalysts as well as effect of alternative energies and future aspects for PLA production.

Industrial Crops and Products

Due to the inherent environmental benefits of using renewable materials, mimosa tannin resin (a n... more Due to the inherent environmental benefits of using renewable materials, mimosa tannin resin (a natural phenolic resin) reinforced by flax fibres could offer desirable characteristics (lightweight, economic and low environmental impact) aiming at reducing carbon footprint of superlight electric vehicles. The non-woven flax mats were chemically treated (alkali, acetylation, silane and enzymatic treatment) to prepare tannin composites through compression moulding (130 °C/35 min/1.5 MPa). The change in fibre morphology was seen in SEM (scanning electronic microscope) images. The treatments (except enzymatic) showed significant improvement in tensile properties, along with enhancement (acetylation) in flexural properties, but little effect on impact resistance for all treatments. APS (aminopropyl triethoxy siloxane) treated composites showed highest tensile strength of 60 MPa and modulus of 7.5 GPa. BTCA (butanetetracarboxylic acid) treatment led to the highest flexural strength of up t...

Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2015

ABSTRACT Nanomaterials are one of the promising technologies of this century. The Project on Emer... more ABSTRACT Nanomaterials are one of the promising technologies of this century. The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies [1] reports more than 1600 consumer products based on nanotechnology that are currently on the market and advantages link to the reinforcement of polymeric materials using nano-fillers are not to demonstrate anymore. However, the concerns about safety and its consumer perception can slow down the acceptance of nanocomposites. Indeed, during its life-cycle, a nanotechnology-based product can release nano-sized particles exposing workers, consumers and environment and the risk involved in the use and disposal of such particles is not well known. The current legislation concerning chemicals and environment protection doesn't explicitly cover nanomaterials and changes undergone by nanoparticles during the products’ life cycle. Also, the possible physio-chemical changes that the nanoparticles may undergo during its life cycle are unknown. Industries need a standard method to evaluate nanoparticles release during products’ life cycle in order to improve the knowledge in nanomaterials risk assessment and the legislation, and to inform customers about the safety of nanomaterials and nanoproducts. This work aims to propose a replicable method in order to assess the release of nanoparticles during the machining of nanocomposites in a controlled environment. For this purpose, a new experimental set-up was implemented and issues observed in previous methods (background noise due to uncontrolled ambient environment and the process itself, unrepeatable machining parameters) were solved. A characterisation and validation of the chamber used is presented in this paper. Also, preliminary testing on drilling of polymer-based nanocomposites (Polyamide-6/Glass Fibre reinforced with nano-SiO2) manufactured by extrusion and injection moulding were achieved.

The hydrophobicity of flax fibres often leads to the poor fibre/hydrophobic matrix adhesion. The ... more The hydrophobicity of flax fibres often leads to the poor fibre/hydrophobic matrix adhesion. The flax fibres are amenable to modification so as to solve the problem. Alkali, acetylation, silane treatment and enzymatic treatment were employed for the flax fibre mats in author’s study. To understand how these treatments affect the physical properties, infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) were conducted on flax fibres. It was found that all the treatments result in the removal of pectin component within the primary cell wall due to the disappearance of the characteristic peak at 1735 cm-1. Comparing with the untreated fibres, the onset degradation temperature of treated ones decreased, however, the peak of the maximum decomposition rate shifted to high temperatures, indicating a better thermal stability.

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2012

Innovation is often driven by changes in government policies regulating the industries, especiall... more Innovation is often driven by changes in government policies regulating the industries, especially true in case of the automotive. Except weight savings, the strict EU regulation of 95% recyclable material-made vehicles drives the manufactures and scientists to seek new 'green materials' for structural applications. With handing at two major drawbacks (production cost and safety), ECHOSHELL is supported by EU to develop and optimise structural solutions for superlight electric vehicles by using bio-composites made of highperformance natural fibres and resins, providing enhanced strength and bio-degradability characteristics. Flax reinforced tannin-based composite is selected as one of the candidates and were firstly investigated with different fabric lay-up angles (non-woven flax mat, UD, [0, 90°] 4 and [0, +45°, 90°, -45°] 2 ) through authors' work. Some of the obtained results, such as tensile properties and SEM micrographs were shown in this conference paper. The UD flax reinforced composite exhibits the best tensile performance, with tensile strength and modulus of 150 MPa and 9.6 MPa, respectively. It was observed that during tension the oriented-fabric composites showed some delamination process, which are expected to be eliminated through surface treatment (alkali treatment etc.) and nanotechnology, such as the use of nano-fibrils. Failure mechanism of the tested samples were identified through SEM results, indicating that the combination of fibre pull-out, fibre breakage and brittle resins failure mainly contribute to the fracture failure of composites.

Industrial Crops and Products, 2013

Flax reinforced tannin-based composites have a potential to be used in vehicle applications due t... more Flax reinforced tannin-based composites have a potential to be used in vehicle applications due to the environmental advantages and good mechanical properties. In this paper, the effects of fibre configuration on mechanical properties of flax/tannin composites were investigated for nonwoven and woven fabric lay-up angles (UD, [0 • , 90 • ] 2 and [0 • , +45 • , 90 • , −45 • ] 2 ). The tannin/flax composites were prepared by compression moulding. The manufactured specimens were then characterized for quasi-static tensile properties, dynamic mechanical properties and low-energy impact performance. Failure mechanism was further investigated using microscopy and demonstrated the need for further adhesion improvements. The study shows that the UD fabric reinforced composite performs better in tensile strength and modulus whereas [0 • , +45 • , 90 • , −45 • ] 2 composite provides the best impact energy absorption performance.

2008 10th Electronics Packaging Technology Conference, 2008

Electronics manufacturers are under legislative pressure to find alternatives to non-recyclable t... more Electronics manufacturers are under legislative pressure to find alternatives to non-recyclable thermoset PCBs for production of electronics. A candidate process being developed at Loughborough University uses injection over-moulding to embed components in a polymer matrix, prior to interconnection by electroplating of the moulding or by printing of a conductive ink. Crucial to the manufacturing quality and reliability of products made

At Loughborough University an environmentally friendly manufacturing process for electronic circu... more At Loughborough University an environmentally friendly manufacturing process for electronic circuits, involving the embedding of electronic components in thermoplastic resins via insert injection moulding, is under development. Once embedded, interconnection between components is achieved by subsequently plating or printing metallisation patterns on the moulding surface. The environmental benefits of the process arise from the enhanced separability of components, metals and matrix at end of life compared to conventional solder mounting of components on a thermoset polymer based circuit board. The separated components then form concentrated waste streams allowing improved efficiency of material recovery. It was observed in earlier work that intimate contact between the overmoulded thermoplastic resin, and the legs of the electronic components, was crucial for the integrity of the electrical interconnection. If small gaps open up around the embedded components after solidification these will either act as weak points in the electrical interconnect pattern, or prevent electrical interconnect being achieved at all. The quality of the component/overmould interface is likely to depend both on material-material interactions, i.e. adhesion between overmould and insert surfaces, and on the solidification history of the overmould material. What reports there are in the literature come to conflicting conclusions on the importance of wetting for adhesion and joint strength obtained in insert moulding. In principle the wetting of metals by polymers, and hence material-material adhesion, is expected to improve with rise in the temperature of the interface. At the same time, an increased insert temperature is expected to reduce the cooling rate of the thermoplastic after injection, and so increase the crystal fraction and degree of shrinkage of the solidified material in the vicinity of the insert. The study which is reported here was undertaken to determine quantitatively the imp- - ortance of these two factors on the joint strength obtained by overmoulding metals, and in particular tinned surfaces, with thermoplastic resin. Data from systematic measurements of the variation with insert temperature of the joint strength measured by pull out force measurements, for tin coated wire overmoulded with six different thermoplastics, are reported. In most cases the peak strength occurred for insert temperature near the glass transition temperature of the overmould material. The maximum strength variation with temperature observed for a single material was 42%, which occurred for PMMA between room temperature and 80°C. By contrast the wetting of the same set of polymers on tin, in high temperature contact angle measurements, was observed to uniformly improve (reducing contact angle) with increase in system temperature. The results are of wider interest than electronics, because of the sparsity of reports in the literature on factors affecting overmould/insert joint strengths in the industrially important process of insert moulding.

Materials & Design, 2015

ABSTRACT In this work, three-phase nanocomposites using multiscale reinforcements were studied to... more ABSTRACT In this work, three-phase nanocomposites using multiscale reinforcements were studied to evaluate the influence of nanofillers on static and dynamic mechanical properties at varying temperature conditions. In particular, short-fibres reinforced polyamide 6 (30 wt.%) composites with various weight fractions of montmorillonite (OMMT) and nanosilica (SiO2), manufactured and investigated. Quasi-static tensile properties were investigated at room temperature and also at 65 °C just above the polyamide 6 (PA6) glass transition temperature. The low velocity impact tests were conducted on the manufactured cone-shaped structures to evaluate the crash behaviour and energy absorption capability. The study results shows that the increase of the weight percentage level of OMMT in PA6/glass fibre (30 wt.%) composite made the nanocomposites more brittle and simultaneously deteriorated the tensile properties. SiO2 nanofiller at 1 wt.% was found to be the optimum ratio for improving tensile properties in silica-based nanocomposites studied. It was further noted that for both types of nanofillers, the crashing behaviour and energy absorption in dynamic properties were improved with increase in nanofillers weight percentage in the composites. The study also shows that the brittleness behaviour of the nanocomposites investigated is associated to the fibre/matrix interaction which is dependent on the nanofiller type and has significant effect on crash modes observed.

International Research Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2015

Materials, 2013

This work describes flax fibre reinforced polymeric composites with recent developments. The prop... more This work describes flax fibre reinforced polymeric composites with recent developments. The properties of flax fibres, as well as advanced fibre treatments such as mercerization, silane treatment, acylation, peroxide treatment and coatings for the enhancement of flax/matrix incompatibility are presented. The characteristic properties and characterizations of flax composites on various polymers including polypropylene (PP) and polylactic acid, epoxy, bio-epoxy and bio-phenolic resin are discussed. A brief overview is also given on the recent nanotechnology applied in flax composites.