Damage in flax/epoxy quasi-unidirectional woven laminates under quasi-static tension

The damage initiation and development in flax/epoxy laminates under quasi-static tension is studied. The laminates are made of quasi-unidirectional woven prepregs in different configurations [0°]₈, [0°, 90°]_2S, [−45°, 45°]_2S and [0°, 90°, +45°, −45°]_S, and processed using an autoclave. The damage was monitored during the tensile test using acoustic emission and observed by post-mortem microscopy of the samples. The stress–strain curves illustrate the ductile behaviour of the [+45°, −45°]_2S composite, whereas in the other composites a more brittle behaviour was observed. Non-linearity of the stress–strain curves is explained by the intrinsic non-linearity of flax fibres in tension. The combination of the stress–strain data and the registered acoustic emission data is used to identify the damage initiation and propagation thresholds. The damage thresholds are the lowest in the [0°]₈ laminate and the highest in the [+45°, −45°]_2S laminate. The observed fracture zones and damage mode are cracks inside and on the boundary of technical fibres, cracks on the boundary of tows, matrix cracking, fibre pull-out and fibre breakage. A notable feature of the damage behaviour is almost full absence of transverse matrix cracks inside tows in 90° plies, which are the major damage modes in glass- and carbon-reinforced plastics. This is attributed to the low stress concentrations in transverse direction due to the low transverse modulus of flax fibres.