Theoretical study of the effect of the plant and synthetic fibers on the fiber-matrix interface damage of biocomposite materials based on PHAs (polyhydroxyalkanoates) biodegradable matrix.

The natural plant fibers and biopolymers are a very important alternative to replace the inorganic fibers most used in the mechanical reinforcement of composite materials (carbon, glass, ...) and synthetic polymers (Epoxy, PEEK, ...), and at the same time they have a very low environmental impact and a very reasonable price. In this article, we have studied, by a numerical simulation based on genetic approach, the fiber-matrix interface damage of composite materials made up from the PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates) matrix and the carbon, glass, jute, and hemp reinforcements with the same volume fraction equal to 30% for each fiber chosen. Our results showed that the damage at the fiber-matrix interface of the biocomposite hemp/PHA is the lowest compared with the other biocomposite materials glass/PHA, jute/PHA, and carbon/PHA. This finding is similar to that found by Antoine Le Duigou et al. and Bodros et al., where they have shown experimentally that the natural reinforcements greatly improve the properties of composite materials and also they have a very low environmental impact. To our knowledge, no published research reports on the study of fiber-matrix interface damage of biocomposite materials based on PHAs and carbon, glass, jute, and hemp fibers for potential textile applications, packaging, and other interesting areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]