Wood versus Plant Fibers: Similarities and Differences in Composite Applications

Table 2

Tensile properties of wood and plant fiber composites. The type of fiber preforms used for the composites is given, in addition to their nominal fiber orientation; in-plane random (RD) and unidirectional (UD). For means of comparison, tensile properties of glass and carbon fiber composites are shown.

	Fiber; content; (% v/v)	Tensile properties		Reference
		Stiffness; (GPa)	Strength; (MPa)
Wood fiber composites
Wood pulp/PP^1; RD	27	4.2	28	[30]
Eucalyptus saw dust/UP^1; RD	46	6.2	60	[31]
Kraft + TMP/PP; RD	40	4.5	43	[32]
Sulphite pulp/PP^1; RD	50	3.9	51	[33]
Kraft/PF—paper; RD	72	^a26.2	247	[34]
Kraft/PF—paper; RD	72	^b11.7	156	[34]
Plant fiber composites
Flax/starch—loose fibers^1; RD	37	8.3	51	[35]
Jute/PP—non-woven mat; RD	32	8.4	39	[36]
Jute/PP—non-woven mat; RD	30	5.2	40	[37]
Flax/PLA—non-crimp fabric; UD	39	19.5	150	[38]
Flax/epoxy—non-crimp fabric; UD	35	19.8	234	[39]
Flax/epoxy—yarn^2; UD	40	28.0	133	[40]
Flax/PET—yarn^2; UD	48	32.0	344	[41]
Glass fiber composites
Glass/PP— loose fibers^1; RD	30	7.3	100	[42]
Glass/PP—chopped strand mat; RD	20	5.4	77	[44]
Glass/epoxy—roving; UD	55	39.0	1080	[45]
Glass/PP—roving^2; UD	60	45.0	1020	[43]
Carbon fiber composites
Carbon^c/epoxy—roving; UD	60	313.0	1140	Calculated
Carbon^d/epoxy—roving; UD	60	142.0	2140	Calculated

1Injection molding; ²filament-winding.
^aMachine direction; ^bcross direction; ^chigh modulus fibers; ^dhigh strength fibers.