The Effects Of Fiber Orientation On Mechanical Properties Of Polymer Matrix Composites
Keywords:
Fibre orientation, glass-fibre reinforced composites, polymer matrix composites, polypropyleneAbstract
This work has studied the effect of fiber orientation on mechanical properties of some polymer matrix composites (PMCs). Composite samples using polypropylene as the polymer matrix and fiber glass as the reinforcement were used. The designation adopted for this experiment was” GFRP – O” which represents glass fiber reinforced plastic while “O” (orientation) represents the direction of laying the glass fiber in the polymer (polypropylene) matrix. Unidirectional, Bidirectional, and Random orientation were used. Un-reinforced plastic (URP), which was the virgin polypropylene served as the control. The melting process was carried out in a muffle furnace using open mould casting process. The results showed that the orientation of the fibers significantly affects the mechanical strength of the reinforced composite as well as the direction of maximum strength.
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