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Abstract
Bamboo, one of the strongest natural structural composite materials, has many distinguishing features. It has been found that its reinforcement
unit, hollow, multilayered and spirally-wound bast fiber, plays an extremely important role in its mechanical behavior. In the present work,
on the basis of the study on bamboo bast fiber and wood tracheid, a biomimetic model of the reinforcing element, composed of two layers of
helically wound fiber, was suggested. To detect the structural characteristics of such a microstructure, four types of macro fiber specimens
made of engineering compositses were employed: axially aligned solid and hollow cylinders, and single- and double-helical hollow cylinders.
These specimens were subjected to several possible loadings, and the experimental results reveal that only the double-helical structural unit
possesses the optimum comprehensive mechanical properties. An interlaminar transition zone model imitating bamboo bast fiber was proposed
and was verified by engineering composite materials. In our work, the transition zone can increase the interlaminar shear strength of the
composite materials by about 15%. These biomimetic structural models can be applied in the design and manufacture of engineering composite
materials.
Table 3
The properties tested and geometric size of the specimen (D and dare the outer and inner diameters of the macro fiber specimen, respectively)
Table 4
A summary of the experimental :results on the six mechanical properties of the four types of structures (the data in parentheses are standard deviations)
No. of A B C D
samples
and the geometric size of the specimens are listed in Table 3. the central part and hence relative displacement occurs
The mechanical properties tested and the experimental results between two oppositely arranged helical layers and the out-
are summarized in Table 4. side thin layer is more easily damaged. To determine the
Natural bamboo bast fiber is so slender that its diameter extent of the damage caused by buckling, the post-buckling
ranges between 20 pm and 45 pm and its length is lOOO- compressive strength was tested and the results are also listed
2000 pm. For a single fiber, the stability of such a structure in Table 4. From these data it is evident that buckling causes
with a high length to diameter ratio cannot be overlooked. more damage to double-helical structures than the other three
Thus the axial compressive buckling test was performed to types of structure. This is also the reason why D-type struc-
compare the structural stability of the four types of specimens. tures can improve the structural stability.
The testing speed was 2 mm min- and the test was per- For the bending test, owing to the anisotropy and thick
formed at room temperature. From the experimental data wall of the four types of specimens, the precise calculation
listed in Table 4, it can be seen that the D-type specimen is of the maximum normal stress according to classical com-
more stable than the C-type specimen but less than the B- posites theory is very complicated. Here the geometric sizes,
type, and shows no inferiority to the A-type specimen. That fiber volume fraction and total number of fibers were con-
is to say, double-helical structures will be more stable than trolled as seriously as possible in the manufacturing process
single-helical ones, although only a thin layer of left-helical of the specimens so that a comparison of the maximum bend-
fibers was wound outside. The inversely wound helical fiber ing load is meaningful. Furthermore, for the A-type speci-
layers restrained each other when the specimen was com- men, its fibers were arranged along the axial direction, and
pressed During the test for axial compressive buckling, an the deviation angle of the C-type specimen was. 1.5. For the
interesting phenomenon was observed. Of the four types of D-type specimen, there are only 20% of fibers whose helical
specimens, only on the surface of the D-type specimen was angle is 30, thus the relative anisotropy is not very strong. If
obvious damage found after buckling. This can be explained the anisotropy of the specimen was not taken into account,
as follows. When buckling occurs, the specimen will bend in the maximum normal stress, calculated according to the
128 S.H. Li et al. /Materials Science and Engineering: C 3 (1995) 125-130
40
30
s
0 20
(P
s
10
0
0 I 2 3 4 5
mechanics of the materials, can give a rough comparison of number of them, perhaps about lo%, do. This phenomenon
the maximum normal stress. This can be called the apparent was then applied in engineering composite materials and the
flexural strength, a parameter of the relative capacity to bear work of fracture was increased successfully at the expense of
a bending load. From the calculated results listed in Table 4, a moderate loss of stiffness and axial strength [ 31.
it can be seen that the D-type specimens show no inferiority In our tension experiment, the so-called pseudo-plasticity
to the other types of structure in bearing the bending load. existed only in the C-type specimen, as shown in Fig. 4,
For the compressive test, the load-displacement curve of although not as obvious as reported in Ref. [ 31 for the long
the D-type specimen is much different from those of the spirally wound tube. The fiber fully aligned A-type specimens
others. Its typical curve is shown in Fig. 3. If only from the fracture abruptly after the maximum load. This can be
viewpoint of compressive strength, the D-type structure is explained as follows. According to the buckling theory of
closer to the A type, but is better than the C-type structure. composite materials, the critical buckling stress is a function
However, if the pseudo-plastic phenomenon which occurred of the principal elastic constants of the tube, the angle of the
in the D-type specimen is considered, the structural advantage spiral winding, and tube thickness [ lo]. Compared with the
of the D-type specimen is evident. The displacement of the specimen in Ref. [ 31, the specimens in our work have thicker
D-type structure is increased as much as twice, but its strength tube walls. For the D-type specimen, the double-helical ele-
is maintained at a level of 85% of the maximum compressive ment, the two inversely wound fiber layers restrain each other
strength. In other words, at the expense of 15% strength loss, and thus reduce the possibility of buckling. In other words,
the plasticity of the double-helical structure is increased by the structural stability is increased. However, compared with
200%. the plain A-type specimen, the double-helical structure
The tensile property is always very important for any struc- improves the plasticity to some extent.
ture. To compare the tensile behavior of the spiral and non- What was analyzed above is for a single fiber cylinder.
spiral structures, three types of tensile specimens were made However, compared with the A-type structure, which can be
and tested. Since the tensile load is very high and the pressure thought of as a model of a bundle of fibers in laminates, the
stress of the tabbed region is of considerable value, to prevent D-type structures have other advantages when they are used
a collapse occurring in the end part under the pressure of jigs, in bundle form. The firm attachment of a fiber cylinder to
the tabbed region was filled inside with iron wire and was other adjacent ones can effectively prevent them from twist-
reinforced outside with glass fiber and epoxy resin. The test- ing. Hence, there exists a restraint against any shear strain
ing speed for the tensile modulus is 2 mm min- and 5 mm which might otherwise result from the application of a normal
min- for the tensile strength. The results of the apparent stress along the fiber cylinder axis. More specifically, the
tensile modulus and the tensile strength of the three types of restraint arises because, in the double cylinder wall of two
specimen are listed in Table 4. For the tensile property, adjacent cylinders, the same helical sense of equivalent layers
according to the classical theory of fibrous composite mate- in both cylinders will mean opposite signs of the helical angle
rials, there is no difference between structures A and B. in the two layers. The shear strains of the separate equivalent
For the spirally wound tube under tension load, an inter- layers would thus also be of opposite sign, but since the layers
esting phenomenon of tension buckling was observed by Page are connected and two cylinder walls must deform as a unit,
et al. when they studied wood tracheid in 197 1 [ 91. Although the shear strain is effectively restrained.
not all the fibers in a given cross-section of wood actually On the basis of above experimental data and analysis, a
buckle in this manner when wood fractures, a considerable useful conclusion can be drawn: a double-helical fiber struc-
S.H. Li et al. /Materials Science and Engineering: C 3 (1995) 125430 129
4. Biomimicry of the transition zone in a bamboo fiber simplified plane model rather than a real spatial spiral one
was designed (as shown in Fig. 6) and was verified by engi-
We know that bamboo bast fiber possesses a very compli- neering composite materials.
cated structure, from the macro to micro scale. In particular, Between two normal layers, a transition zone was formed
bamboo bast fiber is, to some extent, similar to other kinds by inserting several additional sub-layers in order to avoid
of plant cells or fibers, as we described earlier. However, the the abrupt change in the angle of the principal axis of the two
ultrafine structure of bamboo bast fiber is somewhat different adjacent layers. The sub-layers are thinner than the normal
from others, at least from the published literature. From the ones. The fiber angle of the sub-layer was designed in such a
observations of Wai et al. [7], bamboo bast fiber has a way that the sub-layers will divide the fiber angle difference
detailed ultrafine structure between broad and thin layers, as of the adjacent layer into equal parts. First, an engineering
shown in Fig. 5 (b) . composite material of glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin was
From Fig. 5 it can be .seen that bamboo fiber contains employed, and for comparison another kind of specimen
alternating broad and thin layers. Let us pay special attention without a transition zone was also prepared (like Fig. 6).
to the interface between the thick and thin layers, namely the For many engineering applications, composite materials
transition zone. Usually there are several sub-layers in the are used in laminated form and in such cases delamination is
transition zone and the microfibrils there change their eleva- one of the main modes of damage and failure. The interlam-
tion angle gradually from one layer to the adjacent one. This inar shear modulus and ultimate stress are therefore both very
phenomenon undoubtedly increases the complexity of the important parameters to be considered in the design of struc-
microstructure of a bamboo fiber. From the viewpoint of tures. Several methods have been suggested to measure the
biological evolution they must have some function. What is interlaminar shear strength of fiber-reinforced composites.
the use of the transition zone? Obviously the continuity of The most commonly used method is to subject a short thick
the physical properties of the adjacent layers can be improved. beam to three-point loading until failure occurs by shear on
Do they have any influence on the mechanical behavior of the central plane. It has also been reported [ 111 that the short
bamboo fiber? beam method cannot be recommended as an accurate way to
It is natural for us to i-magine that this transition zone acquire data for design purposes. Besides short beam, the
probably has some effect on the inter-layer property. So, a double-side grooved specimen [ 121 becomes more common
in the test of interlaminar shear properties.
Here, both short beam specimens and grooved specimens
L4
were used to measure the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) .
N3
For the glass fiber/epoxy resin specimens, the interlaminar
L3 L3 shear strength was measured by using a two-sided grooved
- N2 specimen, as shown in Fig. 7. The experimental results are
shown in Fig. 8, where it can be seen that the transition zone
N2 slightly increased the interlaminar shear strength.
- LI To verify this conclusion, another engineering composite
material was also used, i.e. glass fiber reinforced polyester.
This time the ply mode was [ + 12/- 12],, and ( + 12),/
+4/ - 4/ ( - 12),. The sub-layer with the angle of 4 is made
from different glass strands and is thus thinner. This time the
(a) (b) short beam specimen for three-point bending was exploited
Fig. 5. Schematic illustration of the secondary wall stracture of a bamboo
to test interlaminar shear strength. Eight specimens were
fiber. (a) The struch~re of a fiber; (b) the detailed structure of (a) showing tested for each group and the results are shown in Fig. 8. The
the transition zone. (After Wai et al. [ 71.) span is 19 mm and the diameter of the nose is 20 mm.
130 S.H. Li et al. /Materials Science and Engineering: C 3 (1995) 125-130