Interfacial, tensile and bending properties of a novel wide-angle woven fabric/EPDM composite

Off-axis woven flexible composites have attracted attention because of its excellent deformability. However, the current traditional method is to cut orthogonal woven fabrics into the diagonal lines, in which the central axis of above-mentioned diagonal fabrics is consistent with the length of synchronous belt. Obviously, this technique is inefficient and costly. This paper presents the interfacial, tensile and bending properties of a novel wide-angle woven fabric/ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) composites. 60°/120° wide-angle fabrics are prepared by an improved rapier loom. For comparisons, 0°/90° orthogonal fabrics are also braided. Then these two kinds of the fabric/EPDM composites are fabricated by a hot pressing mechanism. Subsequently, the interface, tensile and bending tests are carried out. The mechanical behaviors and failure mode are analyzed. The results show that the tensile strength and modulus of 60°/120° wide-angle fabric/EPDM composites are 11.11 MPa and 61.43 MPa, which are 22% (9.14 MPa) and 65% (37.04 MPa) higher than those of 0°/90° orthogonal fabric/EPDM composites, respectively. Moreover, the bending strength (5.86 MPa) of 0°/90° orthogonal fabric/EPDM composites is similar to that (6.62 MPa) of 60°/120° wide-angle fabric/EPDM composites, whereas the bending modulus (206.31 MPa) of the former is 30% lower than that (293.83 MPa) of the later ones.