Influence of Fiber Orientation on the Strength Properties of Paper-Epoxy Composites

Abstract

An important advantage of paper composites is their sustainability. Natural fibers store CO 2 during growth, they are recyclable and may be safely thermally recycled. In this work, composites out of laboratory paper and epoxy resin are generated in a hand lay-up process. The laboratory paper varies in the degree of fiber orientation. As a comparison, paper with isotropic fiber orientation is also used. The tensile strength for the isotropic paper composite is about 120 MPa. It can be observed that the tensile strength of the composite tends to increase with the increase of fiber orientation in the paper. The measured tensile strength of the oriented paper composites in the fiber direction is about 150 MPa and in cross fiber direction about 50 MPa. The strength characteristics are comparatively lower than for carbon or glass fiber reinforced composites, but the density of the paper composites investigated here is only about 1.26 g/cm 3 and the raw material price is significantly lower making paper composites economically attractive. At the end, strength values are modeled with the rule of mixture as well as with Kröling's strength model. In conclusion, tensile strength of oriented paper composites are higher than of isotropic paper.