Effect of fiber loading on mechanical behavior of chopped glass fiber reinforced polymer composites

Abstract

Chopped strand mat glass fibre reinforced polymer composites is widely used in many industrial applications particularly in the automotive industry due to advantages such as low weight, ease of processing, price and noise suppression. Although a great deal of work has been reported in the literature which discuss the mechanical behavior of fiber reinforced polymer composites, however, very limited work has been done on effect of fiber loading on mechanical behavior of chopped glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites. Against this background, the present research work has been undertaken, with an objective to explore the potential of chopped glass fiber as a reinforcing material in polymer composites and to investigate its effect on the mechanical behavior of the resulting composites. The present research work thus aims to develop chopped glass fiber based polymer composites and study the influence of fiber loading on their mechanical behavior. Finally the morphology of fractured surfaces is examined by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) after tensile, impact and flexural tests.