Effect of eco-friendly chemical sodium bicarbonate treatment on the mechanical properties of flax fibres: Weibull statistics

In this work, a chemical treatment with different concentrations of NaHCO3 (sodium bicarbonate) of 5%, 10% and 20% on the surface of the flax fibre for a period of 120 h at room temperature is achieved. The purpose of this study is to observe the effect of different treatment processes on flax fibres, which is to say on its mechanical properties such as strength and strain at fracture and Young’s modulus. An important campaign of the test of more than 480 tests is carried out. Due to the variability of plant fibres, more than 120 samples were tested for each group at a gauge length (GL = 20 mm). The tensile mechanical property values of the flax fibres present a large dispersion of results; this is typical for natural fibres, hence the need for a statistical study. This dispersion has been studied and carried out by means and statistical tools such as the distribution of Weibull at two and three parameters by applying a prediction model to a confidence level at 95% CI and one-way ANOVA analysis of variance.