FN Archimer Export Format PT J TI Long term immersion in natural seawater of Flax/PLA biocomposite BT AF LE DUIGOU, Antoine BOURMAUD, Alain DAVIES, Peter BALEY, Christophe AS 1:1;2:1;3:2;4:1; FF 1:;2:;3:PDG-REM-RDT-LCSM;4:; C1 Equipe Polymeres & Composites, Lab Ingn Mat Bretagne, LIMATB, F-56321 Lorient, France. IFREMER, Ctr Brest, Marine Struct Grp, F-29280 Plouzane, France. C2 UBS, FRANCE IFREMER, FRANCE SI BREST SE PDG-REM-RDT-LCSM IN WOS Ifremer jusqu'en 2018 copubli-france copubli-univ-france IF 1.351 TC 65 UR https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00211/32191/30681.pdf LA English DT Article DE ;Natural fibre composites;Seawater ageing;Damage mechanism AB Innovation in sailing yacht design must include current environmental concerns such as resource depletion and waste management. Indeed most of the materials used today are petro-based and cannot offer viable end of life treatment. Fully biodegradable natural fibre reinforced biopolymers are being increasingly studied as they offer high specific stiffness and low environmental footprint. However, their ageing mechanisms are still not well understood. The present article gives information on 2 years natural seawater aging effect on injection-molded Flax/PLA biocomposite. Biocomposites suffer from relatively high moisture absorption which is controlled by the vegetal fibres. Simple rules of mixtures allow the determination of weight gain for flax fibres which is around 12%. Bundles of fibres and especially middle lamellae influence water uptake. Water alters flax fibres and their biocomposites, since their mechanical properties (Young’s modulus and tensile strength) are reduced with aging. A linear relationship is observed between water uptake and loss of mechanical properties. Load–unload cycles highlight damage occuring earlier than unaged biocomposites. This damage can be induced by fibre degradation and washing out of soluble components especially the fibre bundles cement, and by debonding of fibre bundles linked to their swelling. PY 2014 PD NOV SO Ocean Engineering SN 0029-8018 PU Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd VL 90 UT 000345474400015 BP 140 EP 148 DI 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2014.07.021 ID 32191 ER EF