Non-circular cross-section fibres for composite reinforcement—a review with a focus on flat glass fibres

Thomason, James and Carlin, Andrew and Yang, Liu (2024) Non-circular cross-section fibres for composite reinforcement—a review with a focus on flat glass fibres. Fibers, 12 (11). 98. ISSN 2079-6439 (https://doi.org/10.3390/fib12110098)

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Abstract

Glass fibre reinforcements form the backbone of the composites industry. Today, glass fibre products account for more than 95% of the fibre reinforcements used in the composites industry. Since the first commercialisation of glass fibres for composite reinforcement in the 1930s, the cross-sectional shape of glass fibres has remained exclusively circular. However, many of the other types of fibre reinforcement have a non-circular cross section (NCCS). This paper reviews the available knowledge on the production of NCCS glass fibres and some of the possibilities that such fibres offer to enhance the performance of glass reinforced polymer composites. The three parts of the review focus on early research work on different shapes of glass fibre, the developments leading to industrial-level production of NCCS glass fibres, and the more recent data available on the influence of the available commercially produced NCCS flat glass fibres on composite performance. It Is concluded that the continued development of NCCS glass fibres may offer interesting potential to generate composites with increased performance and may also enable further tailoring of composite performance to enable new applications to be developed.

ORCID iDs

Thomason, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0868-3793, Carlin, Andrew and Yang, Liu ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8475-1757;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)