Flax Fibre Braided Reinforced Composite Tubes

Natural fibre reinforced composites are predominantly being used in Fibre-Reinforced Plastic (FRP) industry because their light weight, non toxicity and comparable mechanical properties to that of glass fibre reinforced composites. Natural fibre reinforcement in the form of one dimensional preform, knitted fabrics, braided fabrics and woven fabrics are increasingly used in the composites. This is due to the high degree of anisotropy and formability offered by the textile reinforcements. Among the different preform, braided preform offer high strength due to its high degree of interlocking structure and fibre orientation. Even though a lot of research work has been carried out on braided reinforcements, only limited attempts have been carried out on usage of natural fibre in braiding. Hence in the present investigation, flax braided reinforced composites using epoxy resin were developed which can be used as fluid transmission pipes.