Numerical study on the design of flax/bamboo fiber reinforced hybrid composites under bending load

Natural fiber-based composites are essential for the environment in this era of depletion of petroleum resources and for new green environmental rules, as they have limited detrimental behavior or response against the environment. In this paper, firstly, the suitability of replacing glass fiber with natural bamboo fiber in a flax/glass/epoxy hybrid composite under a fixed bending load is investigated using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software ABAQUS with proper model validation. Finally, five different lay-up sequences of flax/bamboo/epoxy hybrid composite laminate for fixed volume fractions of flax and bamboo strips are investigated numerically to develop design strategies for binary hybrid composite. It is found that the bending stiffness and equivalent modulus of elasticity for model FB-1 are increased by 37.53 % and 37.52 % respectively compared to the base model while the energy absorption for model FB-3 is highest which is 105.89 % higher than the base model. Analysis of various lay-up sequences showed that flexural behavior can be improved by fabricating binary hybrid composites using the concept of a sandwich structure. It is shown that all highly stiff laminas should be placed on the outer sides of the composite to achieve the maximum bending stiffness whereas they should be placed at the center to attain the maximum energy absorption.