Manufacture and Characterization of Cola Lépidota Reinforcements for Composite Applications

Abstract

This study represents the first works on the manufacture of reinforcements for composite applications such as yarns and fabrics using a tropical fiber extracted from the bast of the Cola Lepidota (CL) plant. Different types of products were produced, including twisted and untwisted yarns and woven and quasi-unidirectional fabrics to manufacture composite samples. At each scale, experimental characterizations of textile and mechanical properties were carried out; these properties are compared to those given in the literature concerning natural fiber materials. The results show that the tenacity of twisted and untwisted CL yarns is higher than that of similar products based on flax fibers, which is an important result for the weaveability of these rovings. At the fabric scale, the quasi-unidirectional architecture reduces waviness and shows promising tensile properties compared to woven fabrics. On the scale of composites, these developments made it possible to achieve properties in tensile comparable, particularly in stiffness, to those achieved by composites based on natural fibers. The objectives of this paper are to highlight the advantages and drawbacks of different types of reinforcements, and to present the first characterization of the properties of products based on CL fibers.