Composites

Composites: Part B 44 (2013) 120–127

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Composites: Part B journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

Green composites: A review of adequate materials for automotive applications
Georgios Koronis ⇑, Arlindo Silva, Mihail Fontul
Instituto Superior Tecnico, Mechanical Engineering Department, Lisbon, Portugal

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This study provides a bibliographic review in the broad field of green composites seeking-out for materials with a potential to be applied in the near future on automotive body panels. Hereupon, materials deriving from renewable resources will be preferred as opposed to the exhaustible fossil products. With the technical information of bio-polymers and natural reinforcements a database was created with the mechanical performance of several possible components for the prospect green composite. Following the review, an assessment is performed where aspects of suitability for the candidate elements in terms of mechanical properties are analyzed. In that section, renewable materials for matrix and reinforcement are screened accordingly in order to identify which hold both adequate strength and stiffness performance along with affordable cost so as to be a promising proposal for a green composite. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 27 December 2011 Received in revised form 7 May 2012 Accepted 3 July 2012 Available online 24 July 2012 Keywords: A. Polymer–matrix composites (PMCs) B. Mechanical properties Natural fibers

1. Introduction Green composites deriving from renewable resources bring very promising potential to provide benefits to companies, natural environment and end-customers due to dwindling petroleum resources. The shift to more sustainable constructions in automotive industry is not only an initiative towards a more viable environment and cost efficiency but also a demand of European regulations. The

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