• Composites Research
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.115-125
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• 2024

As global issues and interest in the environment increase, the transition to eco-friendly materials is accelerating in the automobile industry. In the automotive industry, eco-friendly composite materials are mainly used in various interior and exterior components, reducing the reliance on traditional petroleum-based materials. In particular, natural fiber composites help reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by making vehicles lighter. Additionally, they boast superior thermal properties and durability compared to non-recyclable composite materials, making them suitable for automotive interior parts. Furthermore, reduced production costs and sustainability are key advantages of natural fiber composites. The eco-friendly composites market is expected to grow to $86.43 billion at a CAGR of 15.3% from 2022 to 2030, and the natural fiber composites market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 5.3% from 2023 to 2028 to $424 million. In this review paper, we explore research trends in nextgeneration natural fiber composite materials for automobiles and their application in the actual automobile industry.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.1219-1220
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• 2013

• Composites Research
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.419-424
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• 2022

Using non-biodegradable polymers is a severe environmental problem as they are not recyclable and generate a large amount of waste. Biopolymers, such as starch-based composites, have been considered one of the most promising replacement materials. These eco-friendly materials have the advantage of being low-cost, biodegradable, and obtained from renewable sources. However, as starch tends to be brittle and hydrophilic, it can make these materials unusable when exposed to water and limit its processability for further applications. In this work, a biobased modified starch was grafted using two bioderived materials, lauryl methacrylate (LMA) and tetrahydrofurfuryl methacrylate (THFMA), by radical polymerization. A polylactic acid (PLA) composite based on the modified starch (m-St) was fabricated to enhance its toughness. These samples were characterized by Fourier transform infrared, ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR analysis, optical and scanning electron microscopy. The starch was successfully grafted, thus improving the compatibility with the PLA matrix. The mechanical properties of these films were also studied. Results from mechanical tests showed a slight enhancement of the mechanical performance of these composites when m-St was added to the PLA matrix. Such behavior is related to the improved dispersion of m-St 1:2 on PLA, confirmed by SEM images showing enhanced compatibility between modified starch and PLA matrix. This indicated excellent properties of the produced composite film for further eco-friendly applications.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.527-534
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• 2022

EDCC (Eco-Friendly Ductile Cementitious Composites) is a recently created class of engineered cementitious composites that exhibit extremely high ductility and elastoplastic behavior under pure tension. EDCC contains reduced amounts of cement and very large volumes of fly ash. Due to these properties, EDCC has become one of the solutions to use in seismic upgrading. This paper discloses previous studies and research that discussed the seismic upgrading of unreinforced, non-grouted, unconfined, and non-load bearing masonry walls which are called URM infill walls using the EDCC technique. URM infill wall is one of the weak links in the building structure to withstand the earthquake waves, as the brittle behavior of the URM infill walls behaves poorly during seismic events. The purpose of this study is to fill a knowledge gap about the theoretical and experimental ways to use the EDCC in URM infill walls. The findings reflect the ability of the EDCC to change the behavior from brittle to ductile to a certain percentage behavior, increasing the overall drift before collapse as it increases the energy dissipation, and resists significant shaking under extensive levels with various types and intensities.

• Composites Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.41-49
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• 2009

Natural fiber reinforced composites are emerging as low-cost, lightweight, recyclable, and eco-friendly materials. These are biodegradable and non-abrasive. Due to eco-friendly and biodegradable characteristics of natural fibers, they are being considered as potential candidates to replace the conventional fibers. The chemical, mechanical, and physical properties of natural fibers have distinct features depending upon the cellulose content of the fibers which varies from fiber to fiber. The mechanical properties of composites are influenced mainly by the adhesion between matrix and fibers. Several chemical and physical modification methods of fiber surface were incorporated to improve the tiber-matrix adhesion resulting in the enhancement of mechanical properties of the composites. This paper outlines the works reported on natural tiber reinforced composites with special reference to the type of fibers, polymer matrix, processing techniques, treatment of fibers, and fiber-matrix interface.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.315-328
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• 2023

The main goal of the present study was to assess the effects of eggshell powder (ESP) and halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) on the mechanical properties of abaca fiber (AF)-reinforced natural composites. For this purpose, a limited number of indentation tests were first performed on the AF/polypropylene (PP) composites for different HNT and ESP loadings (0 wt.% ~ 6 wt.%), load amplitudes (150, 200, and 250 N), and two types of indenters (Vickers or conical). The Young's modulus, hardness and plasticity index of each specimen were calculated using the indentation test results and Oliver-Pharr method. The accuracy of the experimental results was confirmed by comparing the values of the Young's modulus obtained from the indentation test with the results of the conventional tensile test. Then, a feed-forward shallow artificial neural network (ANN) with high efficiency was trained based on the obtained experimental data. The trained ANN could properly predict the variations of the mentioned mechanical properties of AF/PP composites incorporated with different HNT and ESP loadings. Furthermore, the trained ANN demonstrated that HNTs increase the elastic modulus and hardness of the composite, while the incorporation of ESP reduces these properties. For instance, the Young's modulus of composites incorporated with 3 wt.% of ESP decreased by 30.7% compared with the pure composite, while increasing the weight fraction of ESP up to 6% decreased the Young's modulus by 34.8%. Moreover, the trained ANN indicated that HNTs have a more significant effect on reducing the plasticity index than ESP.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.398-403
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• 2018

Recently, environmental pollution caused by plastic waste, ecosystem disturbance of micro-plastics and human body accumulation are becoming big problems. In order to replace the traditional plastic, eco-friendly resin and natural fiber-based composite materials have been developed, but they have a disadvantage that their mechanical properties are significantly lower than those of synthetic fiber-based composites. In this study, eco - friendly nanofiber was extracted from seaweed and used as an additive in order to improve the mechanical properties of jute fiber-reinforced composites. Through the hand lay-up process, the composites were fabricated, and it was confirmed that the nanofiber was effective in improving the mechanical properties of natural fiber composites through tensile, bending and drop weight impact tests.

• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.32-36
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• 2023

Recently, as global environmental issues for sustainable development, such as carbon neutrality, have emerged, disposal methods of glass fiber composites, a material of existing wind turbines, have become a problem. To solve this problem, in this study, 30kW wind turbine blades were manufactured using flax fiber-based composites, which are eco-friendly natural fiber composites that can replace existing glass fiber composites, and their suitability was evaluated. First, mechanical strength tests were conducted to verify the feasibility of using eco-friendly natural flax fiber composites as a wind turbine blade material, and as a result, better strength were confirmed compared to previous studies on the properties of flax fiber composites. In addition, the suitability was confirmed through a static strength performance evaluation test to measure the static strength of the flax fiber composite blade using the manufactured 30kW class flax fiber composite blade.

• Composites Research
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.57-62
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• 2021

As interest in the eco-friendly ships and lightweight equipment is increasing in the shipbuilding and marine industry, composite materials are applied to equipment such as pipes. In this study, a basalt fiber reinforced furan composite (BFC), an eco-friendly material, was manufactured to apply the pipe insulation cover that requires environment-friendly and heat/flame retardant performance. An optimization study of post-curing conditions of BFC was conducted, and experiments and analysis were performed on mechanical strength, heat/flame retardant properties, and affinity properties. Finally, as a result of the study BFC material is proved to be a good candidate to apply pipe insulation cover.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.67 no.9
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• pp.1181-1188
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• 2018

In order to develop new insulating materials for GIS Spacer using environmentally friendly insulating gas, three kinds of dispersed liquid nano composites of solid epoxy /nano layered silicate filled material were prepared. And the epoxy/nano/micro silica composite was prepared by mixing epoxy/nano 3 phr dispersion/4 kinds of filler contents(40,50,60, 70wt%). The electrical insulation breakdown strengths of the nano and nano/micro mixed composites were evaluated by using 8 kinds of samples including the original epoxy. The mechanical tensile strength of the epoxy / nano / micro silica composite were evaluated, also. The TEM was measured to evaluate the internal structure of nano/micro composites. As a result, it was confirmed that the layered silicate nano particles was exfoliated through the process of inserting epoxy resin between silicate layers and the layers. In addition, dispersion of nano / micro silica resulted in improvement of electrical insulation breakdown strength with increase of filling amount of dense tissue with nanoparticles inserted between microparticles. In addition, the tensile strength showed a similar tendency, and as the content of microsilica filler increased, the mechanical improvement was further increased.