Performance Evaluation and MLP Prediction of Flax and Graphene Oxide Reinforced Polyester Composites.
J. Environ. Nanotechnol., Volume 14, No 4 (December 2025) pp. 81-91
Abstract
This research examines the mechanical properties of composites made from flax fiber and polyester resin. Hybrid composites were produced by integrating flax fiber, known for its exceptional tensile and flexural strengths, with graphene oxide nanoparticles (nGO) and polyester resin. The flexural and ultimate tensile strengths of the composites were predicted using a multilayer perceptron (MLP) regression model, a type of artificial neural network (ANN). The composite material FGO-1, comprising 40 wt.% flax fiber, 1 wt.% graphene oxide nanoparticles, and 59 wt.% polyester resin, exhibited outstanding mechanical properties. The FGO-1 sample showed improvements in flexural modulus (46.80%), flexural strength (50.80%), tensile modulus (32%), and tensile strength (37.83%). The energy absorption rate was 32.69%, and its impact resistance exceeded that of the other composite formulations by 8.75%. The ANN model successfully predicted these strengths, achieving R2 values of 0.89 and 0.98 for flexural and tensile strengths, respectively. Microstructural analysis using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) was conducted alongside tensile, flexural, impact, and interlaminar shear strength tests to evaluate the composite’s performance.
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