Impact and Fire Retardant Properties of Flax Fiber Reinforced Nanoclay Composites by Taguchi Method

This paper deals with the study of mechanical properties and impact energy absorbed by composites, made by using thermoplastic and thermoset as matrix, flax fiber and nanoclay as reinforcements. The nanoclay was sprayed on the fiber laminate directly after mixing with ethanol. This experiment designed by Taguchi method and have variable factors, i.e three types of fiber direction(F), three different nanoclay wt%(N) and three spray gun hole shapes(S). According to these conditions, composites were made and the optimum conditions were found to be F1N3S1, F1N2S1, F1N2S1 and F3N2S1 for thermoplastic, and F1N3S2, F1N3S2, F1N2S2 and F3N2S1 for thermoset which were matched with tensile strength, modulus, total impact absorbed energy and heat release rate respectively.