Développement d’un non-tissé structurel à base de fibres naturelles

Abstract

In a perspective of sustainable production and protection of resources and environement, the use of bio-based materials appears as a choice path to explore both for common non-structural applications and structural composite parts. CTT Group has undertaken to study with its industrial partners the possibility of producing nonwoven reinforcements made of natural fibers to replace eventually a fiberglass mat used as a reinforcement in civil engineering applications. Two types of fibers were selected for the work: recycled jute and virgin kenaf. The nonwoven produced is composed of 85% of natural fibers and 15% of bicomponent synthetic fibers. After characterizing the physical and mechanical properties of the various fibers used in the production of the nonwovens, an optimization of the textile parameters of the drylaid forming process and thermal bonding temperature was conducted for the two types of natural fibers in order to obtain the highest mechanical performance. For jute, the best results in terms of mechanical performance are 12% lower than the fiberglass mat in the machine direction but more than 120% higher in the cross direction. Kenaf fiber nonwovens are 50% stronger in the machine direction and 400% higher in the cross direction compared to the fiberglass mat. The high performance obtained is attributed, among other things, to the use of a hydrophilic bicomponent fiber. It is also shown that an increase in the bicomponent fiber content in the nonwovens improves their mechanical performance. These results confirm the enormous potential of natural fibers, even from recycled origin, for the production of composite part reinforcement, including for structural applications.

Date	24 Nov 2016
Original language	French
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Éric David (Supervisor) & Patricia Dolez (Co-supervisor)