The influence of fibre length and concentration on the properties of glass fibre reinforced polypropylene. 6. The properties of injection moulded long fibre PP at high fibre content

The results of an investigation of the mechanical performance of injection moulded long glass fibre reinforced polypropylene with a glass fibre content in the range 0-73 wt% are presented. The composite modulus exhibited a linear dependence on fibre content over the full range of the study. Composite strength and impact resistance exhibited a maximum in performance in the 40-50 wt% reinforcement content range. The residual fibre length and fibre orientation in the samples has also been characterised. These parameters were also found to be fibre concentration dependent. Modelling of the composite strength using the measured fibre length and orientation data did enable a maximum in strength to be predicted. However, the position and absolute level of the predicted maximum did not correlate well with the experimental data. Further analysis indicated that deeper investigation of the dependence of the interfacial shear strength and fibre stress at composite failure on the fibre content are required to fully elucidate these results.