Investigation on the adoption and non uniformity of natural fibres and loading direction sensitivity of 3d woven composites

Abstract

The adoption of electric vehicles has its fair share of hurdles, such as range anxiety, battery life, all-weather performance and safety. Hence, research in the field of energy-dense material, battery thermal management, and lightweight materials for vehicle body and their components have picked up the pace. Focusing on the lightweight aspect, a lighter vehicle body will have a longer range than a heavier vehicle for the same battery capacity. Also, adhering to the Directive on End-of-Life Vehicles, which mandates to construct the vehicle such that the usage of reusable and/or recyclable materials are minimum of 80% by mass and of reusable and/or recoverable materials are minimum of 85% by mass, attention on new approaches to obtain lightweight and sustainable materials is paramount. Thus, the aim of this study is to aid in the development of sustainable natural fibre composites (NFC) with mechanical properties sufficient for their application in exterior and/or interior panels of the vehicle by chemical composition and novel design. Hence the objectives of this thesis are: newlinei. To induce a thought to review and assess the utilisation of research in the field of natural fibres and its adoption in the industry. ii. To gauge the sufficiency of surface treatment procedure for use in natural fibre composites and highlight its need for standardisation. iii. To review and evaluate the modelling and analysis methods for fibre-reinforcement of the composites. iv. To develop a novel web-shaped design in the potential composite structure. newline newline newline