Adhesion testing of cellulose fibres with polymer matrices

In fibre reinforced composites, adhesion between the reinforcing fibres and matrix is fundamentally responsible for mechanical behaviour of a composite structure. The primary focus of this thesis is characterisation and measurement of Ioncell cellulose fibre adhesion with polymer matrix materials. The structure consists of two parts, theoretical review and experimental testing. The theoretical section explains the concept of shear lag theory, which forms basis for stress transfer to fibres through matrix. A review of various micromechanical methods, mainly pullout, fragmentation and microdebond methods. Besides micromechanical methods, it also includes other methods using macro scale specimens. Experimental part consists of microbond tests. It includes specimen preparation, test set up, testing and finally results and analysis