Construction and Building Materials 208 (2019) 220–227

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

The effect of surface treatment on the creep behavior of flax fiber

reinforced composites under hygrothermal aging conditions
Xiaomeng Wang a, Michal Petrů a,⇑, Hang Yu b
a
Institute for Nanomaterials, Advanced Technologies and Innovation, Technical University of Liberec, Studentska 2, Liberec 461 17, Czech Republic
b
School of Transportation and Civil Engineering, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China

h i g h l i g h t s

The creep behavior of FFRP under hygrothermal aging conditions is studied.

Surface treatment can effectively improve the creep performance of FFRP.

The proposed model can be applied in creep analysis of other natural FRPs.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The application of natural FRP (Fiber Reinforced Polymer) is being targeted in various fields due to both
Received 7 November 2018 environmental and economic benefits. FFRP (Flax Fiber Reinforced Polymer) is one of the major natural
Received in revised form 28 February 2019 FRPs. The durability and long-term performance of FFRP have been proven a key to its practical engineer-
Accepted 1 March 2019
ing application. Some experimental works have been conducted to investigate the creep properties of
FFRP. However, fewer efforts have been made to improve its creep performance thus far. In this paper,
the effect of surface treatment on the creep behavior of FFRP under hygrothermal aging conditions is
Keywords:
studied, and a fractional-order creep model is established to predict its creep behavior.
Flax fiber
Composite
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Creep
Surface treatment
Hygrothermal
Fractional calculus

1. Introduction plasticization of matrix, which leads to mechanical property degra-

In the last three decades, FRPs have been adopted as alterna-
tives to traditional structural materials such as steel, due to their
high tensile strength, high stiffness to weight ratio and superior
fatigue resistance. The recent developments of FRPs are towards
the growth and usage of natural FRP in the field of engineering.
FFRP is one of the most commonly used natural FRP. FFRP has
the advantages of lightweight, low cost and easy recyclability [1–
3]. However, due to a short history of FFRP in the engineering field,
the durability and long-term performance of FFRP remains an open
question.
Some recent researches [4,5] show that flax fiber with porous
structure is susceptible to the humid environment. For example,
Scida et al. [6] and Thuault et al. [7] found that the hygrothermal
aging causes disorganization of flax microfibrils network and the
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: michal.petru@tul.cz (M. Petrů).
dation of FFRP. Scida et al. [6] reported that after 38 days of
hygrothermal aging with a relative humidity of 90% at 40 , the elas-
tic modulus and tensile strength of FFRP decrease by 58% and 52%,
respectively. Thuault et al. [7] found that tensile strength of FFRP
deceases when RH is above 68%. For example, the tensile strength
decreases more than 60% after 2 months of aging with a relative
humidity of 100% at temperature above 85 . Du et al. [8] reported
that humidity produces a significant acceleration of the creep
strain of natural fiber reinforced composite sandwich panels. Com-
pared with specimens in ambient relative humidity, specimens at
higher relative humidity (65%) exhibit larger creep deformation
and enter the tertiary creep stage relatively earlier.
Some recent researches show that the mechanical properties
and water resistance of FFRP can be improved by chemical treat-
ments such as alkalization [9,10], acetylation [11,12], silanization
[13,14]. For example, Lin et al. [9] and Amiri et al. [10] found that
the tensile strength and flexural strength of FFRP increase signifi-
cantly after alkali-treatment. Compared with the SEM pictures of

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.03.001
0950-0618/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 X. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 208 (2019) 220–227
untreated flax fiber, the surface of alkali-treated fiber is cleaner and
rougher because of the hemicelluloses, lignin and surface impuri-
ties (such as waxes and oils) are taken away [9,10]. The treated
fiber surface facilitates both mechanical interlocking and bonding
reaction. Therefore, the performance of fiber/matrix bond interface
is improved. The reaction of sodium hydroxide with fiber cell is
[15] (Scheme 1).
Besides, alkali-treatment reduces the hydrophilic hydroxyl
groups in the fiber and improves the moisture resistance [16].
Bledzki et al. [11] reported that the tensile strength of FFRP
increases by 20–35% after acetylation treatment, and the water
uptake of the specimen is significantly reduced. And they found
the surface morphology of the treated fiber is smother because
the wax and cuticle are taken away. Acetyl group (CH3CO) reacts
with the hydrophilic hydroxyl groups (OH) of the fiber (as shown
in Scheme 2 [18]). The hydrophilic of the modified fiber is reduced
and the dimensional stability is improved [17].
Georgiopoulos et al. [14] investigated the effect of silane treat-
ment on the mechanical properties of FFRP. They found that the
specimen treated with 1 wt% silane solution shows an optimum
increment of 11% in flexural modulus, and the specimen treated
with 2 wt% silane solution shows an optimum increment of 18%
in flexural strength. Compared with the SEM pictures of the
untreated specimens, there are more matrix attached to the trea-
ted fiber, which indicates the adhesion between the flax fibers
and the matrix can be improved by silane treatment. They also
noted that silane treatment of flax fiber slows the process of creep
in FFRP. Firstly, the silane coupling agent creates a chemical bond
between the fiber and matrix. Secondly, silane coupling agent
forms a hydrophobic organic silicate protective layer on the fiber
surface, which can effectively reduce water abortion [19]. The reac-
tion between fiber cell and the silane coupling agent is shown in
Scheme 3 [20].
Fiber-cell-OH + NaOH Fiber-cell-O-Na+ + H2O + impurities
Scheme 1. Reaction between sodium hydroxide and fiber cell.
Acetylation with acid catalyst
O
(CH3CO)2O
(a) Fiber-cell-OH + CH3COOH Fiber-cell-O-C-CH3 + H2O
Conc. H2SO4
Acetylation without acid catalyst
O O O O
(b) Fiber-cell-OH + CH3-C-O-C-CH3 Fiber-cell-O-C-CH3 + CH3C-OH
Scheme 2. Acetylation reaction with and without acid catalyst.
O OCH3 O OCH3
(a) H2C-CH-R-Si-OCH3 + 3H2O H2C-CH-R-Si-OH + 3CH3OH
OCH3 OCH3
O OCH3 O OCH3
(b) H2C-CH-R-Si-OH + Fiber-cell-OH H2C-CH-R-Si-O-Fiber-cell + H2O
OCH3 OCH3
Scheme 3. Reaction between silane coupling agent and fiber cell.
221
In the presence of moisture, silane is hydrolyzed to form silanol
(Scheme 3(a)). The silanol then reacts with the hydroxyl group of
fiber cell to form a strong covalent bond between fiber and silane
(Scheme 3(b)). The other end of silanol forms a bond with matrix
functional group [21]. This co-reactivity provides molecular conti-
nuity across the interface of the composite. Therefore, the perfor-
mance of fiber/matrix interface is improved.
Although some experimental works have been reported on the
creep of FFRP, fewer analytical efforts have been made to model
and predict its creep behavior. Creep of FFRP is influenced by the
mechanical properties of flax fiber, matrix and the interface
between them. To get accurate fitting results, Marklund et al.
[22] and Varna et al. [4] introduced Schapery’s model [23], which
contains three stress-dependent functions to characterize the vis-
coelastic behavior of FFRP. Wong and Shanks [24] compared Max-
well model, Kelvin-Voigt model and Burgers model, and Burgers
model is found to produce a better creep description of modified
FFRP with different additives. Gemant et al. [25] found some limi-
tations of traditional integer order calculus-based viscoelastic
models and introduced fractional differential into the basic differ-
ential equation to model the viscoelastic behavior of materials.
Some researches [26,27] show that, compared with traditional vis-
coelastic models, the fractional calculus-based ones have proved to
be powerful tools to characterize the creep behaviors of polymers
and other materials with less parameters. However, the fractional
calculus approach to creep of FFRP is rarely reported up to now.
In this work, the effect of surface treatment on the creep behav-
ior of flax fiber reinforced composites under hygrothermal aging
condition is studied, and a fractional derivative creep model is
adopted to describe the creep response of the FFRP.
2. Test methods
The unidirectional flax fabric (Fig. 1) was supplied by Nanjing
Hitech Composite Co., Ltd. Three kinds of chemical treatments of
flax fiber were adopted: alkalization, silanization and acetylation.
The alkali-treated group was soaked in 5 wt% NaOH solution for
0.5 h at 25 °C. The silanization group was soaked in 0.1 wt% silane
solution (triethoxy silane) for 1 h at 25 °C. The acetylated group
was initially soaked in glacial acetic acid for 2 h at 30 °C, and con-
sequently treated with acetic anhydride (with FeCl3 as catalyzer)
for 1 h at 50 °C. After the treatment, the flax fabric was washed
by distilled water and dried in an oven.
The treated flax fabric was used to manufacture FFRP. Epoxy
resin (E 44) and curing agent (C 650) from Nantong Xingchen
Fig. 1. Flax fabric.
222 X. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 208 (2019) 220–227

Synthetic Material Co. were used as the matrix. The FFRP specimen
was made of approximately 30% fiber in volume. The dimension of
FFRP specimen in rectangular form is 50 mm  10 mm  1.35 mm.
After curing (25 °C for 2 weeks), the specimens were first dried
in an oven at 60 °C for 24 h, and then soaked in distilled water at
60 °C in an environmental test chamber. Both the water uptake
and creep properties of the specimens were measured.

(1) Water uptake tests. Dry specimens were weighed after oven
drying. The soaked specimens in test chamber were period-
ically taken out and dried by blotting paper and weighed to
assess the water uptake.
(2) Creep tests. The creep tests scheme is shown in Table 1.
Creep tests were carried out with DMS (Dynamic Mechanical
Spectrometer) 6100 (Fig. 2), at a three-point bending mode, Specimen DMS
with a constant stress level of 20 MPa for 30 min. All exper-
imental values were obtained by an average value of three
specimens. After the creep test was finished, a fractional-
Fig. 2. Creep test of FFRP.
order creep model was adopted, and the test data were used
to determine the parameters of the model.

3. Fractional derivative rheological modeling

E1 ε1
The definition for Riemann-Liouville fractional calculus [28] is E1 ε1
Z E2
1 d t
f ðsÞ E1
Da f ðt Þ ¼ ds; ð1Þ ε E3
Cð1  aÞ dt 0 ðt  sÞa τ
where Da is the a order differential operator, 0  a < 1. In the clas- E2 a τ E2
sical viscoelastic theory, the mechanical response of the Hook ε2 ε2
spring is defined as rðt Þ ¼ Eeðt Þ, and the mechanical response of τ
a
the Newton dashpot is: rðt Þ ¼ ge_ ðt Þ. The mechanical response of a
fractional derivative spring-pot can be regarded as an extension of
a
the classical creep model components as: rðt Þ ¼ E The 1a
ga Da eðtÞ. (a) (b) (c)
relaxation time is defined as s ¼ g=E, and the constitutive relation
Fig. 3. Creep models: (a) Maxwell model, (b) Kelvin model, (c) FPT model.
of the fractional derivative spring-pot is
rðtÞ ¼ Esa Da eðtÞ: ð2Þ
where A ¼ E3 =ðE1 þ E2 Þ, B ¼ E1 E2 =ðE1 þ E2 Þ, C ¼ E1 E3 =ðE1 þ E2 Þ.
where elastic modulus E, relaxation time s and fractional derivative By using Laplace transform technique, the creep compliance J ðtÞ
order a are material parameters. The fractional derivative spring- of FPT model is obtained
pot can be used to simulate the viscoelastic behavior of material   a 
between ideal solid (when a ¼ 0) and ideal fluid (when a ¼ 1). 1 AB  C B t
J ðt Þ ¼ þ Ea;1  ; ð4Þ
When subjected to creep stress, the strain of fractional derivative B BC C s
spring-pot does not increase linearly as ideal fluid or complete
where Mittag-Leffler function is defined as: Ea;b ðzÞ ¼
instantaneously as linear elastic solids but exhibits a nonlinear P1 zk
growth. k¼0 CðakþbÞ ; ð a; b > 0Þ. For simplification of the parameters of the
Fig. 3 shows creep models with different combinations of parallel parts in the FPT model, E2 and E3 are postulated as the
springs and fractional derivative spring-pot. Traditional combina- same:E3 ¼ E2 ¼ E . The simplified expression of creep compliance is
tion such as Maxwell model is unable to simulate a decreasing    a 
1 1 t
creep strain rate under constant stress. Kelvin model fails in cap- J ðt Þ ¼ þ  1  Ea;1  ; ð5Þ
turing the instantaneous deformation. Therefore, FPT (Fractional
E1 E s
derivative Poynting-Thomson) model is adopted. The material parameters E1 , E , s, a can be obtained by fitting
The constitutive relation of FPT model can be described as the experimental data as
r þ Asa Da r ¼ Be þ C sa Da e; ð3Þ X
m
minf ðxÞ ¼ ½J ðx; ti Þ  r i 2 ; ð6Þ
i¼1

Table 1
Creep test scheme.

Surface treatment Hygrothermal aging time/days

0 1 4 9 16
Untreated U-0 U-1 U-4 U-9 U-16
Alkalization Al-0 Al-1 Al-4 Al-9 Al-16
Silanization S-0 S-1 S-4 S-9 S-16
Acetylation Ac-0 Ac-1 Ac-4 Ac-9 Ac-16
 X. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 208 (2019) 220–227 223

10
Untreated (2) Set n as a counter. The one-dimensional search
Untreated-Fick's model space is based on dynamic changes of xðn;i1Þ , e.g.
8
ðk;1Þ  ðn;i1Þ 
Alkalization xi 2 d1 x ; d2 xðn;i1Þ
, i ¼ 1; 2; c. Let xðn;0Þ ¼ xðn1Þ , for
6 Alkalization-Fick's model i ¼ 1; 2; c, the one-dimensional search starts from the initial
M t (%)

4
Silanization
point xðn;i1Þ , along the direction of lðn;iÞ , to find wi that makes
Silanization-Fick's model
2 Acetylation
Acetylation-Fick's model f ðxðn;i1Þ þ wi lðn;iÞ Þ ¼ minf ðxðn;i1Þ þ wi lðn;iÞ Þ; ð7Þ
0
0 5 10 15 20
t0.5 (hour 0.5) Then update x ðn;iÞ
¼x þ wi l ; i ¼ 1; 2; c:
ðn;i1Þ ðn;iÞ
Where
0 ðn;0Þ 1 0 1 0 1
x1 0 0
Fig. 4. Relative water uptake of FFRP. B 0 C B xð2n;0Þ C B 0 C
lðn;1Þ ¼ B C B C
B .. C lðn;2Þ ¼ B .. C lðn;cÞ ¼ B @ ... A,
C wi is
@ . A @ . A
 0 0
ðn;0Þ
xc
xi  0; i ¼ 1; c  1
s:t: restricted as wi 2 ½d1 ; d2 . To ensure that the fractional derivative
0  xc  1
order parameter 0  xc  1, wc should satisfy

ðn;i1Þ
where Jðx; ti Þ is the creep compliance calculated by Eq. (5) at time t i , wc  min d2 ; 1=xc 1 .
r i is the creep compliance obtained from the test. x ¼ ðx1 ; xc ÞT is (3) Let xðnÞ ¼ xðn1;cÞ , set a permissible error e > 0, if the conver-
the column vector of material parameters. c is the number of gent condition (as shown in Eq. (8)) is met, end the computation, or
parameters. The parameter represents the order of fractional calcu- n ¼ n þ 1, go to (1).
lus is set as xc . m is the number of test points, and m > c is required.
As the derivative of the Mittag-Leffler function is not obtainable.  
xðnÞ  xðn1Þ 
The optimization problem in Eq. (6) can be solved by replacing the  i 
 i
 < e i ¼ 1; 2; c: ð8Þ
Mittag-Leffler function by an approximate differentiable function,  xðn1Þ 
i
or using other optimization methods without calculating deriva-
tives. The second approach is adopted. A direct search strategy The search speed of this algorithm is related to its initial value,
Powell method [29] is applied. The search process is executed by search range and termination criteria. In order to obtain better fit-
round, and each round is carried out following a group of feasible ting results and minimize the amount of computation, xð0Þ should
orthogonal directions in turn as follows. assigned appropriately. The initial values of FPT model parameters
(1) Set the initial value of xð0Þ , the linearly dependent search can be determined according to the characteristics of Mittag-Leffler
0 ð0Þ 1 0 1 function. When t ¼ 0, Ea;1 ð0Þ ¼ 1, the initial creep compliance is
x1 0 h  i
B 0 C B xð20Þ C J ð0Þ ¼ E11 \* MERGEFORMAT. When t ! þ1, lim Ea;1  st
a
¼ 0\*
B C B C
directions are defined as lð1Þ ¼ B . C lð2Þ ¼ B . C lðcÞ ¼ t!þ1
@ .. A @ .. A MERGEFORMAT, the long term creep compliance (or equilibrium
0 0 creep compliance) is lim J ðtÞ ¼ E11 þ E1 . The creep compliances at
0 1 t!þ1
0
B 0 C the beginning and the end of the test are denoted as J t0 and J tmax .
B . C. J t0 and J tmax can be approximately equal to the initial and
@ .. A
ð0Þ
xc

Table 2
Maximum relative water uptake M m and diffusion coefficient D of FFRP.

Surface treatment Untreated Alkalization Silanization Acetylation

M m (%) 7.75 6.40 5.60 4.48
D(10-6 mm2/s) 4.19 2.93 2.36 2.21

Aging time Untreated Alkali-treated Silane treated Acetylated treated

1 day

4 days

9 days

16 days

Fig. 5. The effect of hygrothermal aging on FFRP specimens.

224 X. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 208 (2019) 220–227

0.5
0.125 U-1

Creep compliance J/GPa -1

Creep compliance J/GPa -1

0.12 U-0
0.45 Al-1
0.115 Al-0
S-1
0.11 S-0 0.4 Ac-1
0.105 Ac-0
0.1 U-1-F
U-0-F 0.35
0.095
Al-0-F Al-1-F
0.09
0.085 S-0-F 0.3 S-1-F
0.08 Ac-0-F Ac-1-F
0.075 0.25
0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40
Time/min Time/min
(a) 0 day (b) 1 days
0.6
0.6
U-4 U-9
Creep compliance J/GPa -1

Creep compliance J/GPa -1

0.55 0.55
Al-4 Al-9
0.5 S-4 0.5 S-9
Ac-4 Ac-9
0.45 0.45
U-4-F U-9-F
0.4 Al-4-F 0.4 Al-9-F

S-4-F S-9-F
0.35 0.35
Ac-9-F
Ac-4-F
0.3 0.3
0 10 20 30 40
0 10 20 30 40
Time/min
Time/min
(c) 4 days (d) 9 days

0.75
U-16
Creep compliance J/GPa -1

0.7
0.65 Al-16

0.6 S-16
0.55 Ac-16
0.5 U-16-F
0.45 Al-16-F
0.4
S-16-F
0.35
Ac-16-F
0.3
0 10 20 30 40
Time/min
(e) 16 days
Fig. 6. Creep curves of FFRP from experiment and FPT model (Note: F stands for the fitting curve of FPT model).

a
long-term creep compliances as J t0 ¼ E11 \* MERGEFORMAT, an approximation is adopted as Ea ðza Þ ’ ez . It is assumed that

J tmax ¼ E11 þ E1 \* MERGEFORMAT, then the initial values of E1 and there is one point t m ; Jtm on the creep compliance test curve, which
E can be approximately considered as: satisfies t m ¼ ms, 0 < m
1. Combining the approximation with
Eq. (5), Eq. (9), and Eq. (10) leads to the initial value of a as
ð0Þ 1  
E1 ¼ ; ð9Þ J tmax  J m
J t0 að0Þ ¼ logm ln : ð12Þ
J tmax  Jt0
1
Eð0Þ ¼ : ð10Þ
J tmax  J t0
4. Results and discussion
when b ¼ 1, 0  a  1, t=s ¼ 0:7, the value of Mittag-Leffler func-

tion is within the range of Ea 0:7a 2 ð0:474; 0:5. In this paper, 4.1. Water uptake results

an approximate is made as: Ea 0:7a ¼ 0:5. The corresponding
time when Jt0:5 ¼ 0:5ðJt0 þ J tmax Þ is denoted as t0:5 . Then the initial The relative water uptake of FFRP is assessed according to:
value of s is
Wt  W0
Mt ¼  100% ð13Þ
sð0Þ ¼ t0:5 =0:7: ð11Þ W0
when 0 < z
1, the Mittag-Leffler function is approximated by where W 0 and W t is the weight of the dry specimen and the wet
[30]: Ea ðza Þ ’ eðz =Cð1þaÞÞ . When 0  a  1, Cð1 þ aÞ 2 ð0:885; 1,
a
specimen, respectively. Generally, the moisture uptake of FFRP
 X. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 208 (2019) 220–227 225

Table 3
Parameters of FPT model.

Surface treatment Parameters Hygrothermal aging time/days

0 1 4 9 16
Untreated E1 9.133 2.571 2.336 2.225 1.936
E 109.189 8.412 6.953 6.168 4.916
s 17.571 17.824 18.129 17.555 15.034
a 0.820 0.892 0.920 0.959 0.977
Alkalization E1 11.464 3.009 2.786 2.569 2.547
E 110.882 8.292 7.981 8.184 5.178
s 17.048 16.748 16.953 17.713 16.783
a 0.786 0.875 0.915 0.927 0.940
Silanization E1 10.053 3.282 2.883 2.680 2.601
E 103.302 9.706 9.048 9.027 6.047
s 16.206 16.640 19.801 18.462 17.526
a 0.804 0.816 0.876 0.881 0.902
Acetylation E1 12.154 3.270 3.088 2.925 2.810
E 106.902 7.916 8.375 8.150 6.417
s 17.142 16.778 16.147 15.585 19.473
a 0.780 0.801 0.805 0.845 0.861

follows a Fickian behavior [6,31]. When Mt

Mm
< 0:6, the diffusivity As shown in Fig. 4, M t increases with the hygrothermal aging
coefficient D in Fick’s law is determined by [32]: time rapidly first, and then followed by a slow plateau segment,
 2 revealing a typical Fickian behavior as described by Eq. (15). The
p hMt relative water uptake of treated specimen is significantly lower
D¼ ð14Þ
t 4Mm than untreated specimen, and the acetylated group exhibit the
lowest water uptake. Table 2 shows diffusion coefficient D calcu-
where h is the thickness of the specimen, M m is the maximum rel-
lated by Eq. (14). Compared with the untreated group, the diffusion
ative water uptake. To predict the water uptake of FFRP, Scida et al.
coefficient of specimen decreases by 30.09%, 43.57%, 47.32%, after
[6] proposed the following approximation:
8 qffiffiffiffiffiffi alkalization, silanization, acetylation treatment, respectively. In
>
> general, strong fiber-matrix interfacial adhesion reduces the water
<h p ; < 0:6
4 Dt Mt
Mt Mm
 absorption of FRP [33,34]. Lower water uptake of the treated spec-
¼
 ð15Þ
Mm > > 1  exp 7:3 Di t 0:75 ; Mt
 0:6 imen reveals a better fiber-matrix adhesion for treated flax fibers.
: w s2 Mm
As shown in Fig. 5, the color of the specimens has changed obvi-
ously after hygrothermal aging. And with the increase of aging
time, the boundary between matrix and fiber is more and more
obvious.
 13 3.5
U-test
11
2.5 25
9 Al-test U-test
E 1 (MPa)

22
7 1.5
2 4 6 8 Al-test
S-test 19
τ (s)

3 16 S-test
Ac-test
1 13
0 2 4 6 8 Ac-test
M t (%)
10
0 2 4 6 8
Fig. 7. Evolution of E1. Mt (%)

Fig. 9. Evolution of s.

120
10
U-test
100
8 1.00
U-test
80 6 0.95
Al-test
E * (MPa)

60 0.90 Al-test
4
2 4 6 8 0.85
40 S-test
S-test
0.80
20
Ac-test 0.75 Ac-test
0 0.70
0 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8
M t (%) M t (%)

Fig. 8. Evolution of E*. Fig. 10. Evolution of a.

226 X. Wang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 208 (2019) 220–227
4.2. Creep test results
After the creep test data was obtained, the algorithm in
Section 3 and software Mathematica were used to calculate the
parameters of FPT model by fitting the test results with Eq. (5).
The curve-fitting results in Fig. 6 show good agreement with test
data for both untreated and treated specimens. The parameters
of the FPT model are presented in Table 3. The influence of mois-
ture content on FPT model parameters is depicted in Figs. 7–10.
The creep compliance increases with the hygrothermal aging
time, as shown in Fig. 6. For example, the creep compliance of
the untreated group at the end of the test increases by 316.03%,
366.28%, 398.61%, 494.80%, after 1 day, 4 days, 9 days and 16 days
of aging, respectively. Compared with the untreated specimens
under the same aging time, the creep compliances of the treated
specimens are significantly reduced. For example, after 16 days of
aging, compared with the untreated group, the creep compliance
at the end of the test decreases by 31.54%, 20.78%, 25.73% after
alkalization, silanization and acetylation treatment, respectively.
The elastic modulus of the Hook spring in series part E1 deter-
mines the initial strain of FPT model: e0 ¼ r=E1 . As illustrated in
Table 3 and Fig. 7, the value of E1 decreases with hygrothermal
aging time and moisture content, resulting in the increase of e0 .
For example, e0 of the untreated group increases by 255.24%,
291.01%, 310.55%, 371.66% after 1 day, 4 days, 9 days and 16 days
of aging, respectively. Compared with the untreated specimens
under the same aging time, e0 of the treated group is smaller. For
example, after hygrothermal aging of 16 days, e0 decreases by
23.96%, 25.54%, 31.08% after alkalization, silanization, acetylation
treatment, respectively.
When t ! þ1, the final strain of FPT model is
e1 ¼ r=E1 þ r=E . The elastic modulus of Hook spring in the paral-
lel part E determines the final creep strain ec1 ¼ r=E . It can be
observed from Table 3 and Fig. 8 that the value of E decreases with
the hygrothermal aging time and relative water uptake, leading to
the increase of ec1 and e1 . Compared with the untreated specimens
under the same aging time, ec1 and e1 of the treated group are
smaller. For example, after hygrothermal aging of 16 days, e1
decreases by 18.62%, 34.72% and 42.06%, and ec1 decreases by
5.07%, 58.02% and 69.92%, after alkalization, silanization, acetyla-
tion treatment, respectively.
As shown in Table 3 and Fig. 9, hygrothermal aging does not
have a noticeable effect on s. As illustrated in Table 3 and
Fig. 10, a increases with hygrothermal aging time and moisture
content. For example, after 1 day, 4 days, 9 days and 16 days of
aging, a of the untreated group increases by 8.81%, 12.20%,
16.91%, 19.15%, respectively. Compared with the untreated speci-
mens, after 16 days of aging, a decreases by 3.79%, 7.68%, 11.86%
after alkalization, silanization and acetylation treatment, respec-
tively. According to the definition of the fractional derivative, the
close of a to 1, the nearer the material to the ideal fluid. The trend
of a indicates that more viscous character after the hygrothermal
aging.
5. Conclusions
The experimental study carried out in this paper aimed at
developing a better understanding of the creep behavior of flax
fiber reinforced composite. The results show that the performance
of FFRP is improved by alkalization, silanization and acetylation
treatment. The water uptake and diffusion coefficients of the trea-
ted specimens are lower than untreated group. The effect of the
chemical treatment is further confirmed by the lower creep defor-
mation of the treated specimens.
A four-parameter FPT model is proposed to describe the creep
behavior of FFRP, and the results show that the fractional-order
creep model agrees well with test data. Although this model is
established for the FFRP in this paper, it may have potential appli-
cations in creep analysis of other natural fiber reinforced compos-
ite materials, and influencing factors such as creep stress,
temperature, et al. can be introduced by parameter modification.
Conflict of interest
None.
Acknowledgement
This work is partially supported by the Ministry of Education,
Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic and the European Union
(European Structural and Investment Funds – Operational Pro-
gramme Research, Development and Education) in the frames of
the project ‘‘Modular platform for autonomous chassis of special-
ized electric vehicles for freight and equipment transportation”,
Reg. No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_025/0007293.
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