Non-woven Flax Fibre Reinforced Polypropylene: Static and Low Velocity Impact Behaviour

Non-woven flax fibre reinforced new and recycled polypropylene were manufacturing by an industrial process of carding, batt, needle-punching and thermo-pressing. Polypropylene fibres were mixed with flax fibres in the carding process forming a thick multi-layered mat which was used for thermo-compression process. Effects of multi-layered non-woven manufacturing on mechanical properties were analyzed in different composites with three fibre areal weights. The results highlight the anisotropic behaviour of the obtained composites and a constant ratio of absorption energy to impact energy. In addition, cyclic tests and acoustic emission method coupled with image correlation measurement were specially employed in order to detect the damage development process in the composites and to qualify the deformation process in tensile test.