| Abstract: | In this paper, the mechanical degradation of natural fiber composites is studied with the consideration of the relative humidity and the temperature. A nonlinear constitutive model is established, which employs an internal variable to describe the mechanical degradation related to the energy dissipation during moisture absorption. The existing experimental researches demonstrated that the mechanical degradation is an irreversible thermodynamic process induced by the degradation of fibers and the damages of interfaces between fiber and matrix, both of which depend on the variation of the relative humidity or the temperature. The evolution of the mechanical degradation is obtained through the determination of dissipation rates as a function of the relative humidity and the temperature. The theoretically predicted mechanical degradations are compared with experimental results of sisal fiber reinforced composites subject to different relative humidity and temperatures, and a good agreement is found. |
