Prediction of Flax Fiber Behavior Using Mechanical Testing and Finite Element Analysis

The present paper examines the mechanical properties of technical flax fibers, especially the strength and stiffness. Tensile testing was up to failure allowed to extract the stress‐strain curve and Young's modulus and to assess the failure strength of the fibers. The specimens showed an average tensile strength of 676.92 MPa and an average Young's modulus of 25.6 GPa. Due to the variability in the experimental results, a statistical analysis using a two‐parameter Weibull distribution was employed, showing an average tensile strength of 766.8 MPa, and an average Young's modulus of 28.9 GPa. Using the experimental data, four variants of a finite element model were created, consisting of geometrical variations, was created in order to obtain a predictable model for the tensile testing of individual flax fibers. The variants show a similar behavior to the experiment, being a first step in the finite element modeling of flax fibers, which gives future improvement resolutions.