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PowerRibs help bending stiffness in flax fiber composite

30 Sep '13
2 min read

PowerRibs are now even more effective. The newest research results were presented during the international conference on composite materials in Leuven.

Bcomp’s so-called “powerRibs” technology consists of a natural fiber fabric grid made from ribs in the millimeter thickness range on the surface of composite parts, resulting in a significant increase of the bending stiffness of thin composite shells by adding only little weight.

This technology is closely related to the use of natural fibers, since it uses the limited compressibility of natural fiber yarns due to their twist to create ribs. The best compromise between high twist – leading to a rib cross-section with an important height – and low twist – yielding a high stiffness of the ribs – has been studied.

The bending stiffness of samples with powerRibs made of yarns with various twist was determined. Also the aspect ratio of the ribs as well as their tensile modulus was measured.

It has been confirmed that the rib’s height increased with the twist of the yarn, while their Young’s modulus decreased. The optimum twist leading to maximum ribs’ efficiency was determined to be 50 t/m with the particular yarn weight used.

It has also been confirmed, that by using the powerRibs technology a flax fiber composite can reach the same bending stiffness as a carbon fiber composite.

Bcomp

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