Improvement of technological properties of wood plastic composites reinforced with glass and carbon fibre fabric

Abstract

In this study, HDPE-based flat-pressed WPCs were reinforced with glass fibre and carbon fibre woven fabrics, which could be used where high strength and stiffness are required. The effect of reinforcement on some physical, mechanical, and thermal properties and fire performance was investigated. According to the results, the increase in woven fabric density resulted in holding much water in the microvoids in the fabric, which increased water absorption up to 32.96%. Reinforcement also resulted in increased hardness. In general, continuous filaments in the fabric significantly increased mechanical properties. The improvement exceeded over 400% for tensile strength compared to unreinforced control samples, while the increases were 129% and 115% for the flexural strength and MOE, respectively. The interlocking of matrix and woven fabrics is an important factor that affects load transfer. The strong interaction between wood-polymer and the wood-polymer-woven fabric was observed from the SEM investigation. The thermal stability of composites was also improved, possibly due to the homogeneous distribution of heat within fibres. Glass and carbon fibres presumably acted as a buffer against increasing heat, increasing the onset temperature. Moreover, according to the LOI test, the need for oxygen increased from 24.72 to 26.01 with the effect of wood flour and reinforcement.