Flax fiber-reinforced materials for building and structural applications

天然纤维是一种丰富的、低成本的、通常未被充分利用的资源。通常，它们是作为工业或农业过程的废物副产品生产的。例如，在加拿大，种植亚麻主要是为了它的油籽，而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。保护风格目前生产亚麻纤维（FF）从加工油籽或纤维亚麻植物。它们是亲水性的，它们的表面可以很容易地修改，以改善基质内的相容性和分散性，使它们有效地增强脆性聚合物，并在插入混凝土基质时稳定裂缝。目前，国内基础设施迫切需要先进的建筑材料，不仅是为了新的高性能建筑，而且还需要修复和提高现有结构的性能。这些材料需要越来越节能，环保，可持续，负担得起和弹性。纤维增强聚合物（FRP）在建筑中的应用越来越广泛。FRP是一种廉价、轻便、耐腐蚀的建筑材料（如钢、混凝土、木材）的替代品，可用于建筑（如壁板、面板和屋顶）和结构应用（如外部加固、薄板）。另一方面，混凝土通常传统上是用钢或聚合物制成的纤维来增强，以增加抗拉强度和改善延展性。这一研究和发展项目将使protect - style的盈利能力和环保性能得到提高，并为玻璃钢制造商和混凝土供应商（b<s:2>顿省）准备一些创新材料。此外，该项目将能够开发一种新型的长丝，这种长丝是可再生的，并利用加拿大高度可用的资源来制造。

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.