Axial quasi-static crushing behaviour of cylindrical woven kenaf fiber reinforced composites

Abstract

This paper presents the crushing responses of cylindrical woven kenaf fibre reinforced composites under quasi-static compression. Kenaf fiber in the form of yarn is weaved into woven mat. It is then submerged into polyester bath before it is wrapped into a cylindrical shape. There are two important parameters investigated such as number of layers and fiber orientations. According to the experimental results, as expected increasing the number of layers increased the energy absorption performances. However, increasing the fibre orientations from 0o to 45o capable to decrease the energy absorption capability. It is also observed that during progressive collapses, localized buckling is the dominant failure mechanism where there is no large composite fragmentation occurred.