SPARC 2018 Internationalisation and collaboration : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2018 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also the launch of our Doctoral School, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 100 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the research strengths of their works, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to take up this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas from your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research inevitably requires interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised by all major research funders. Therefore engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers

Plant fibre reinforced polymers: where do we stand in terms of tensile properties?

Plant fibres have a unique set of properties ranging from being stiff and brittle, such as hemp and flax, to more ductile, such as coir, c ombining these properties with their cost and availability makes them attractive alternative reinforcements for the production of greener composites . This article reviews the tensile properties of various plant fibre or plant based natural fibre - reinforced polymer s reported in the literature . We critically discuss the use of plant fibres as reinforcement for the production of bio - based , renewable or green polymer composites , showing t he evolution of the properties of plant fibre composites. The reported tensile properties of plant fibre - reinforced polymer composites are compared against various renewable and n on - renewable engineering/commodity polymers as well as the tensile properties of commercially available randomly oriented glass fibre - reinforced polymers (GFRP). G reen composites containing random short plant fibres do have similar properties to randomly oriented GFRP at a lower overall part weight. U nidirectional plant fibre - reinf orced polymers offer better performance than randomly oriented GFRP and could have the potential to be adapted in applications requiring even higher mechanical performance, especially in areas where the use of costly synthetic fibres might be less attracti ve . Furthermore, plant fibres can also be regarded as effective fillers to replace more expensive polymer s and improve the green credential s of final composite parts. These features may motivate the industry to introduce more plant fibre - based products to the market