Development of a Prediction Model for the Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene Composites Reinforced by Talc and Short Glass Fibers

Abstract

In this paper, we developed a theoretical model which is able to predict the tensile strength and elastic modulus of hybrid composites reinforced by two types of randomly distributed discontinuous reinforcements. For this, we considered two known models; One is a prediction model based on the assumption that the composite is reinforced by two types of well aligned continuous reinforcements. The other is a statistical model for the composite which is reinforced by only one type of randomly distributed discontinuous reinforcements. In order to evaluate the validity of accuracy of our prediction model, we measured the strength and elastic modulus of polypropylene hybrid composite reinforced by talc and short glass fiber. We found that the present model drastically enhances the accuracy of strength prediction compared to an existing model, and predicts the elastic modulus within the same order with experimentally measured values