Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Integrity-Reliability-Failure, Porto/Portugal 24-28 July 2016 Editors J.F. Silva Gomes and S.A. Meguid Publ. INEGI/FEUP (2016) -291- PAPER REF: 6239 MECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF RECYCLED DENIM FIBRE COMPOSITES Josh Illingworth, Yu Zhang (*) , Nick Tucker School of Engineering, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, LN6 7TS, U.K. (*) Email: [email protected]ABSTRACT Cotton is one of the oldest polymer composite reinforcements. There is considerable interest in denim twill composites for artisanal materials such as knife handles and guitar scratch plates, but as yet there has been little work to quantify the mechanical performance of the materials with a view to extending the areas of application. The focus in this research is to determine whether recycled denim cotton twill coupled with current commercial manufacturing techniques can be used to make practical composite materials, offering a cheaper replacement to glass or virgin natural fibre (flax) reinforcements in semi-structural applications. A wet lay-up vacuum consolidation process with epoxy resin is used to manufacture composite laminates. Glass was shown to provide the highest tensile and flexural strength with recycled denim showing the lowest. However recycled denim showed comparable values of tensile and flexural strength to that of other fibre reinforced polymer composites. This allows denim to offer a suitable replacement to glass fibre composites in application with a lower load bearing. Recycled denim also showed a reduction in cost when material weight is compared for the price paid. Keywords: Natural fibres, recycled Denim, tensile, flexural. INTRODUCTION The first mass application of composite materials was in the manufacture of aeroplane propellers at the beginning of the last century (Caldwell and Clay, 1924), and cotton (Gossypium sp.) reinforcement was used to improve impact strength. Crop origin fibres offer a sustainable source for composite reinforcements which approach material carbon neutrality, making them a viable option to replace synthetic fibres. However natural fibres cannot directly compete with the mechanical properties of carbon fibre (Cook, 1984), but have been seen to rival the specific mechanical properties of glass fibre (Pickering, 2008; Bongarde and Shinde, 2014). Recycled denim is widely in use as fibre reinforcement for the artisanal manufacture of semi-structural articles such as knife handles and guitar scratch plates, but little has been done to examine the mechanical properties and cost of recycled denim composites. To encourage commercial uptake of this material, this paper examines the cost of recycled denim composites against their mechanical performance compared to glass and flax reinforcement. The production of fibres for composites can impact on the environment, with natural fibres providing a more environmentally friendly option to that of synthetic. One difference between the two categories of fibres is a reduced carbon footprint. As already mentioned natural fibres are in some cases carbon neutral as they take in more carbon dioxide than is used in
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Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Integrity-Reliability-Failure, Porto/Portugal 24-28 July 2016
Editors J.F. Silva Gomes and S.A. Meguid
Publ. INEGI/FEUP (2016)
-291-
PAPER REF: 6239
MECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF RECYCLED DENIM FIBRE
COMPOSITES
Josh Illingworth, Yu Zhang(*), Nick Tucker
School of Engineering, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, LN6 7TS, U.K. (*)Email: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Cotton is one of the oldest polymer composite reinforcements. There is considerable interest
in denim twill composites for artisanal materials such as knife handles and guitar scratch
plates, but as yet there has been little work to quantify the mechanical performance of the
materials with a view to extending the areas of application. The focus in this research is to
determine whether recycled denim cotton twill coupled with current commercial
manufacturing techniques can be used to make practical composite materials, offering a
cheaper replacement to glass or virgin natural fibre (flax) reinforcements in semi-structural
applications. A wet lay-up vacuum consolidation process with epoxy resin is used to
manufacture composite laminates. Glass was shown to provide the highest tensile and flexural
strength with recycled denim showing the lowest. However recycled denim showed
comparable values of tensile and flexural strength to that of other fibre reinforced polymer
composites. This allows denim to offer a suitable replacement to glass fibre composites in
application with a lower load bearing. Recycled denim also showed a reduction in cost when