Flax fiber-reinforced materials for building and structural applications

天然纤维是一种丰富、低成本且通常未得到充分利用的资源。通常，它们是作为工业或农业过程的副产品产生的。例如，在加拿大，种植亚麻主要是为了获取油籽，稻草被丢弃或作为废物焚烧。然而，稻草中的纤维是最耐用和最坚固的天然纤维之一，使其成为复合材料中有效纤维增强的理想候选者。加拿大是世界上最大的亚麻生产国和出口国，2013/2014年度生产了近60万吨亚麻，使油籽亚麻成为一种现成的纤维来源。Protec Style目前正在从油籽或纤维亚麻植物的加工中生产亚麻纤维(FF)。它们是亲水性的，其表面可以很容易地进行改性，以改善其在基质中的相容性和分散性，使其在增强脆性聚合物和稳定插入混凝土基质中的裂缝方面具有很高的效率。目前，国内基础设施迫切需要先进的建筑材料，不仅用于新的高性能建筑，而且还用于修复和提高现有结构的性能。这些材料被要求越来越节能、环保、可持续、负担得起和具有弹性。纤维增强复合材料(FRP)在建筑中的应用越来越广泛。FRP是用于建筑(如壁板、面板和屋顶)和结构应用(即外部钢筋、板材)的典型建筑材料(即钢、混凝土、木材)的廉价、轻便和耐用的替代品。另一方面，混凝土通常和传统上都是用钢或聚合物制成的纤维加固，以增加抗拉强度和改善延展性。该研发项目将有助于提高Protec-Style的盈利能力和环保性能，开发出一些创新材料，供玻璃钢制造商和混凝土供应商(贝顿省)使用。此外，该项目将能够开发一种新型的可再生长丝，并利用加拿大高度可用的资源来制造长丝。

Natural fibers are an abundant, low-cost, and generally underutilized resource. Often, they are produced as waste by-products of industrial or agricultural processes. In Canada, for example, flax is grown primarily for its oilseed, and the straw is discarded or burned as a waste material. However, the fiber within the straw is one of the most durable and strong natural fibers, making it an ideal candidate for an effective fiber reinforcement in composite materials. Canada is the largest producer and exporter of flax in the world with close to 600 000 tons of flax produced in 2013/2014, making oilseed flax a readily available source of fibers. Protec-Style is presently producing flax fibers (FF) from the processing of oilseed or fiber flax plant. They are hydrophilic and their surface can be easily modified to improve compatibility and dispersion within matrices, making them efficient in reinforcing brittle polymer and in stabilizing cracks when insert in a concrete matrix. Currently, there is a critical need for advanced building materials for the domestic infrastructure, not only for new high-performance construction, but also to repair and enhance the performance of existing structures. These materials are required to be increasingly more energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, sustainable, affordable, and resilient. Fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) are more and more used in construction. FRP are inexpensive, lightweight, and resistant alternatives to typical construction materials (i.e. steel, concrete, wood) for building (i.e. siding, panel, and roofing) and structural applications (i.e. external reinforcement, sheets). On the other hand, concrete is often and traditionally reinforced with fibers made of steel or polymer to increase tensile strength and improve ductility. This research and development project will enable to improve profitability and the environmental performances of Protec-Style, to elaborate some innovating materials ready to be used by FRP manufacturer and concrete supplier (Béton provincial). In addition, the project will enable to develop a new type of filaments, that is renewable and use highly available resources in Canada for its manufacture.