Tensile properties of flexible latex-based composites reinforced by cotton fibers in the presence of shape memory alloys

The main of this paper is to determine the tensile properties of natural flexible composites. In order to fabricate the composites, the cotton fibers and the latex were used as the reinforcement and matrix, respectively. At the first step, the latex samples were manufactured and tested under tensile loading. In the next step, using the cotton fiber the latex was reinforced and then tested under tensile loading. In addition, the NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) wire was used to improve the tensile properties of the pure latex and the cotton/latex laminated composites. Therefore, one, two or three NiTi wires were used in the pure latex and cotton/epoxy composites samples. The results of experimental study displayed that in the presence of cotton fiber, the ultimate tensile strength of pure latex was increased from 0.93 to 13.51 MPa. Moreover, it was observed that due to adding one, two or three NiTi wires, the ultimate strength of the pure latex was enhanced almost 70, 500 and 800%, respectively. However, the ultimate tensile strength of the cotton/epoxy laminated composites in the presence of one, two and three NiTi wires was increased almost 2, 20 and 40%, respectively. In addition, comparison of the current research results with the other researchers’ investigations manifests that the cotton/epoxy composites reinforced by NiTi wire, the tensile strength of this flexible material is greater than the tensile strength of natural and artificial leathers.