Dynamic In-Situ Observation on the Failure Mechanism of Flax Fiber through Scanning Electron Microscopy

2018 Fibers  
In order to develop and improve bio-inspired fibers, it is necessary to have a proper understanding of the fracture behavior of bio-fibers such as flax fibers from an individual fiber down to the constituent micro-fibrils and nano-fibrils. For investigating the failure mechanism of individual and technical flax fibers, a tensile test bench was placed within a scanning electron microscope, and the entire process of fiber failure was investigated through the capture of an SEM movie. Next,
more » ... aphic analysis was performed on the failure surface of single fibers as well as meso-fibrils that failed at a displacement rate of 0.25 mm/min, 0.75 mm/min, and 1.6 mm/min. The analysis also enabled visualization of a few internal details of flax fiber such as the arrangement of meso-fibrils and micro-fibrils (nano-fibrils). It was shown that the crack bridging mechanism and successive fiber pull-out contributed to the high work of fracture of flax fiber and the value may reach as high as 10 6 J/m 2 .
doi:10.3390/fib6010017 fatcat:v7pcifissvbsdcinfvmb3dz4xi