Composites: Part A 33 (2002) 1641–1652

www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesa

The influence of fibre length and concentration on the properties

of glass fibre reinforced polypropylene:
5. Injection moulded long and short fibre PP
J.L. Thomason*
European Owens Corning Fiberglas, s.a., Route de Charneux, B-4651 Battice, Belgium
Received 27 May 2002; revised 20 September 2002; accepted 28 September 2002

Abstract
We present results of a step by step comparison of the mechanical performance of injection moulded ‘long’ (LF-PP) and ‘short’ (SF-PP) glass
fibre-polypropylene compounds. The study allows direct comparison of the mechanical performance of long and short fibre systems in the same
resin at the same fibre diameter, and the effect of fibre diameter in short fibre compounds. Furthermore, the comparison of these three systems
has been made over the 0 – 40 wt% fibre content range. At the same fibre diameter and fibre content LF-PP gives significant improvements in
room temperature tensile and flexural strength, notched and unnotched impact resistance. The improvement in impact resistance is higher still at
lower test temperature. LF-PP also gives increasingly higher modulus over SF-PP as the strain is increased. The effect of lowering the fibre
diameter in SF-PP has been shown to increase both strength and unnotched impact, but not to the levels obtained with LF-PP at higher fibre
diameter. Notched impact and modulus of SF-PP were relatively unaffected by reduction of the fibre diameter. The relative mechanical data are
shown to conform well to available models. The results are discussed in terms of the relevant micro-mechanical parameters of these materials.
q 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: A. Glass fibres; A. Thermoplastic resin; E. Injection moulding; Polypropylene

1. Introduction † PP combined with inorganic fillers for injection

In recent years there has been an increasing growth in the
use of glass-fibre-polypropylene composite systems in
semi-structural and engineering applications. These thermo-
plastic matrix composite systems combine ease of proces-
sing with property advantages such as enhanced toughness
and an unlimited shelf life. Furthermore, their intrinsic
recyclability is rapidly being recognised as a strong driving
force for their further application. Their potential for high-
volume processing combined with high levels of end use
property levels and associated lower manufacturing costs
has spurred the current expansion of research and develop-
ment activities on thermoplastic (and particularly poly-
propylene) matrix composites. There is currently a large and
growing range of polypropylene based composite systems
available. This range can be divided into a number of
categories based on the reinforcement aspect ratio.
* Tel.: þ32-87-69-24-59; fax: þ 32-87-67-51-10.
E-mail address: james.thomason@owenscorning.com (J.L. Thomason).
1359-835X/02/$ - see front matter q 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 1 3 5 9 - 8 3 5 X ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 7 9 - 3
moulding.
† PP reinforced with ‘short’ (SF-PP) fibres for injection
moulding, delivering an average fibre length of , 1 mm
in the moulded part.
† ‘Long’ fibre reinforced PP (LF-PP) moulding com-
pounds for injection and extrusion compression mould-
ing, delivering an average fibre length in the 1 – 25 mm
range in the moulded part.
† Random, in-plane, fibre-reinforced PP known as Glass
Mat Thermoplastic (GMT) for compression-flow mould-
ing, with fibre lengths in the 10 – 50 mm range.
† Continuous fibre-PP products based on pre-preg or
comingling technology for compression moulding.
Moving down this list generally means moving to
systems which can offer higher performance but usually
involves more complex, time consuming part manufactur-
ing processes which may result in a higher system cost. In
the past few years the growth in structural composite usage
has resulted in the need for higher output manufacturing
1642 J.L. Thomason / Composites: Part A 33 (2002) 1641–1652
processes than have been used previously. This has provided
the impetus for the development of techniques to produce
LF-PP reinforced thermoplastic matrix composites which
possess both high performance and mass processibility. In
particular, the long (but discontinuous) fibre reinforced
materials such as GMT and LF-PP injection moulding
pellets prepared by wire coating, crosshead extrusion, or
thermoplastic pultrusion techniques, have recently received
much attention [1 – 8]. Parallel to this growth has been the
increasing recognition of the need to understand better and
measure the micro-mechanical material parameters and
processing parameters which control the performance of
such composite parts. High performance levels can only be
obtained from a composite part with high fibre concen-
trations and where the reinforcing fibres in the final product
have a sufficiently high aspect ratio (length/diameter).
However, the demands of mass production are often in
conflict with the retention of high aspect ratios and the use
of high fibre concentrations [9 – 16]. Moreover, many
composite production processes result in test samples with
a complex, unknown fibre orientation function which can
further complicate the data analysis and comparison with
model predictions [17 – 19]. Other variables such as the base
resin properties, the fibre strength, and the interfacial
strength are also of prime importance to the final balance
of properties exhibited by moulded thermoplastic compo-
sites. It is therefore essential to be able to fully understand
the structure-processing-performance relationships of the
various forms of GF-PP.
When dealing with the complexity of composite
materials, the route to achieving this goal is often laden
with pitfalls for the unwary, as there may often be many
changes in the material and processing parameters involved
in the comparison of the various GF-PP material systems.
This is certainly the case when trying to understand the
position of LF-PP systems in comparison with GMT and
traditional SF-PP moulding compounds. The effect of fibre
length in the input material on the moulding process has
been reported by a number of authors. In most cases these
reports are based on commercially available LF-PP and
SF-PP compounds. Due to the nature of the production
process for these different compounds there are normally
many structural differences between such materials other
than just the initial fibre length. Most LF-PP compounds are
made by some variation of the pultrusion process requiring a
continuous glass fibre input, whereas most SF-PP com-
pounds are produced by extrusion compounding of chopped
glass fibre bundles either dry blended with PP pellets or
added to the PP melt in an extrusion operation. The
production of these two different forms of glass fibre lays a
number of restrictions on the sizing formulation, the fibre
diameter distribution and the linear density of the fibre
strands [20]. Due to the processing requirements placed on
sizing formulations it is therefore most unlikely that
identical sizings can be applied to these two different fibre
products. Moreover, continuous glass fibres for LF-PP
production will typically fall in the fibre diameter range of
16– 20 mm, whereas the standard fibre diameter for SF-PP is
in the 14– 17 mm range. Furthermore, it is also very likely
that the processing demands of LF-PP and SF-PP compound
production will put different demands on the input PP and its
processing temperature. The LF-PP process typically
requires low resin viscosities (i.e. high melt flow index PP
and/or high processing temperatures), whereas SF-PP will
typically be produced with lower melt flow index PP at more
moderate temperatures.
Clearly this all leads to some uncertainty in the
interpretation of such SF-PP to LF-PP comparisons. In an
attempt to reduce some of this uncertainty we have
produced a number of well-defined SF-PP and LF-PP
compounds and compared their performance in a range
of standard mechanical tests. In particular, we have
produced SF-PP with standard chopped 14 mm diameter
glass fibres and also with 19 mm diameter glass fibres
coated with the same sizing, the performance of these
composites is compared with LF-PP composites produced
with a continuous 19 mm diameter glass fibres. All
compounds were produced using the same PP matrix. All
test data have been generated on injection moulded
samples, moulded on the same machine, and tested under
identical conditions. Furthermore, since glass content is a
variable that dominates composite performance we have
made these comparisons across the normal range of glass
contents (0 – 40 wt%) for thermoplastic moulding com-
pounds. In this report, we present the results from this
study and discuss them in terms of the relevant micro-
mechanical parameters of these materials.
2. Experimental
Owens Corning Cratece 146B-19C and 146B-14C
chopped E-glass (average fibre diameter 19.4 and
13.6 mm) and Huntsman P4C6Z-059 polypropylene
(MFI ¼ 35 g/10 min) were used to produce moulded
SF-PP composites (SF19 and SF14, respectively) with
nominal 10, 20, 30, 40 wt% glass contents. The level of
fibre –matrix interaction in this system was increased by
the addition of 2 phr Polybond 3200 coupling agent. The
glass bundles and pre-dried resin pellets were dry blended
to the desired glass content and compounded on a single
screw extruder (2.5 in., 3.75:1, 24:1 L/D screw). Set point
temperatures were 254 –277 8C (490 – 530 8F) for com-
pounding. LF-PP moulding compounds (LF19) in the
10– 50 wt% fibre content range were produced by a
coating technique similar to that discussed by Bader and
Bowyer [21] using Owens Corning 174C-AD-3000
continuous glass fibres (average fibre diameter 19.0 mm)
and the same resin system described earlier. After cooling,
the continuous strand was chopped into pellets of
12.5 mm length. The compounds were moulded into test
bars on a 200 ton Cincinnati Milacron moulding machine.
 J.L. Thomason / Composites: Part A 33 (2002) 1641–1652 1643

Fig. 1. Residual fibre length versus fibre content (V LF19, B SF19, O SF14).

Set point temperatures were 215 –238 8C (420 – 460 8F) for
moulding, at a mould temperature of 65 8C (150 8F). The
mould was designed to produce a number of standard test
specimens in one shot, all test bars and disks were single
end gated.
Unless otherwise stated, all mechanical property testing
was performed at 23 8C and at a relative humidity of 50%.
Tensile properties were measured in accordance with the
procedures in ASTM D-638, using five ASTM Type I
specimens at a crosshead rate of 5 mm/min (0.2 in./min)
and an extensometer gauge length of 50 mm (2 in.).
Flexural properties were measured on five specimens
in accordance with the procedures in ASTM D-790, at
a crosshead rate of 2.5 mm/min (0.1 in./min) and a span
width of 50 mm (2 in.). Izod and modified Charpy impact
properties were measured on 10 specimens in accordance
with the procedures in ASTM D-256 and ASTM D-4812.
Multiaxial instrumented impact testing was carried out in
accordance with DIN53433 on a Zwick-Rel machine. The
injection moulded sample disks were 50 mm diameter and
3 mm thick with a support diameter of 40 mm. The
impacting tip was 10 mm diameter with a tip radius of
20 mm, impacting at a constant speed of 1 m/s. Fibre length
and diameters were determined by image analysis and
optical microscopy on fibre samples removed from the
moulded bars after high temperature ashing.

Fig. 2. Tensile Young’s modulus versus fibre content (V LF19, B SF19, O SF14, bars show 95% confidence limits).
1644 J.L. Thomason / Composites: Part A 33 (2002) 1641–1652

Fig. 3. Tensile strength versus fibre content (V LF19, B SF19, O SF14).

3. Results process as opposed to the commonly used pre-impregnation

Fig. 1 shows the results for the weight average residual
fibre lengths in the mouldings. It is clear that LF-PP
compounds deliver significantly longer fibres to the
moulded composite in comparison to the extruded com-
pounds. In both of the SF-PP systems the average fibre
length appears to decrease with increasing fibre content, as
has been noted previously [22,23]. However, the least
squares regression analysis shown in Fig. 1 appears to
indicate that the long fibre compounds may be less sensitive
to this trend. One possible factor that may be important here
is the arrangement of the fibres in the LF-PP compound. The
LP-PP compound was prepared by a ‘wire-coating’ type
pultrusion process. This means that the fibres are delivered
to the barrel of the injection moulding machine in bundles.
Fibres at the centre of these bundles may receive
considerable ‘protection’ from the fibre length reduction
processes during the plasticisation process of injection
moulding. Fig. 2 shows the results for composite tensile
modulus. It can be seen that an approximately linear
relationship with fibre weight fraction is obtained over the
whole range (the relationship is actually linear with volume
fraction). There are only minor differences observed
between the three materials. Tensile modulus is influenced
mainly by the fibre and resin modulus, the fibre content and
orientation and only to a much lesser degree by the fibre

Fig. 4. Flexural strength versus fibre content (V LF19, B SF19, O SF14).

 J.L. Thomason / Composites: Part A 33 (2002) 1641–1652 1645

Fig. 5. Tensile elongation versus fibre content (V LF19, B SF19, O SF14).

length [4,9 – 14]. Although it might be expected that the
longer fibres would give better performance, it is also
known that long fibres give slightly lower orientation in the
moulding (and testing) direction [19,24], these two effects
appear to cancel each other out. A virtually identical trend
was observed in the values of flexural modulus.
The data in Fig. 3 show that tensile strength does not
follow the same linear increase as modulus. Instead there is
a continual decrease in reinforcement efficiency as the fibre
content increases. Any incremental increase in fibre content
appears to bring a lower improvement in properties than the
previous one. This has been noted and discussed in previous
reports [22,23]. The following trends can be observed in the
tensile strength results in Fig. 3. The long fibre compounds
clearly give higher tensile performance in the same PP resin.
A lower fibre diameter gives higher performance in short
fibre compounds (this will also be true for long fibre). All
these differences increase with increasing fibre content. The
maximum reinforcement effect is obtained at the
40 – 50 wt% level in both long and short fibre composites.
Fig. 4 shows that the trends for flexural strength are similar
although the absolute levels of flexural strength are higher
than those seen with tensile strength. The results for tensile
elongation are shown in Fig. 5. The addition of even a
small fraction of reinforcement dramatically lowers the
tensile elongation of the system from a PP resin value of
9.6%. After this initial steep drop tensile elongation
further decreases almost linearly with fibre content in

Fig. 6. Notched Izod impact versus fibre content (V LF19, B SF19, O SF14).
1646 J.L. Thomason / Composites: Part A 33 (2002) 1641–1652

Fig. 7. Notched Charpy impact versus fibre content (V LF19, B SF19, O SF14).

the 10 –50 wt% range. It further appears that fibre length has
little significant effect on this property.
The trends observed in notched impact were practically
identical for Izod and Charpy tests, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
The main observation here is that the use of LF-PP
compounds more than doubles the notched impact perform-
ance of these composites at any given fibre content.
Furthermore notched impact is highly dependent on fibre
content and also appears to be approaching a maximum at
the 40 –50 wt% reinforcement level. There was no signifi-
cant effect observed from the different fibre diameters in the
SF-PP composites. The data for unnotched Izod impact are
shown in Fig. 8. In all cases the unnotched impact resistance
of PP is initially lowered by the addition of low
concentrations of fibres. As the fibre content is increased
the unnotched impact resistance increases. However, even
at high fibre concentrations, the resin value is only exceeded
by the LF-PP compounds. The LF-PP materials give
approximately 50% higher unnotched Izod values than the
SF-PP compounds with equivalent fibre diameter. However,
it is well known that unnotched impact is highly sensitive to
fibre diameter [24 –26] and the long fibre advantage is much
less when compared with a ‘standard’ 14 mm fibre diameter
SF-PP compound. Similar trends are also seen in the room
temperature instrumented impact data shown in Fig. 9. The
data for instrumented impact at 2 40 8C are also shown in
Fig. 9. It can be seen that PP is very brittle at this
temperature being below the polymer glass transition

Fig. 8. Unnotched Izod impact versus fibre content (V LF19, B SF19, O SF14).
 J.L. Thomason / Composites: Part A 33 (2002) 1641–1652 1647

Fig. 9. Instrumented impact versus fibre content (V LF19, B SF19, O SF14, filled symbols ¼ 23 8C, open symbols ¼ 240 8C).

temperature. The impact resistance of the SF-PP compounds
is also lowered at 2 40 8C, however, the LF-PP compounds
show no loss of impact resistance at this temperature.
4. Discussion
The main factors affecting the Young’s modulus of
injection moulded test bars are the fibre content, stiffness,
and orientation, and the matrix stiffness [4,9 –14]. To a
lesser extent the aspect ratio, in the normal range found in
these samples, also plays a role. The fibre orientation and
aspect ratio in injection moulded composites are complex
quantities, which unfortunately, are not independent vari-
ables. It has been shown in many studies that injection
moulded composites have a complex layered structure with
very different average fibre orientation in the different layers
[18,19]. Furthermore, the thickness of these layers and the
fibre orientation within the layers has been shown to vary
with fibre length. In general, longer residual fibre length in
the moulded composite leads to a more random average
orientation and a lower ‘orientation factor’ in the equations
commonly used to calculate composite stiffness. As an
example of the commonly used ‘rule of mixtures’ equation
for composite stiffness is
E c ¼ ho hl Ef V f þ V m Em ð1Þ

Fig. 10. Fibre modulus factor (Eq. (2)) versus fibre content.
1648 J.L. Thomason / Composites: Part A 33 (2002) 1641–1652
Table 1
Orientation factors from Eq. (2) and Fig. 10
Slope in Fig. 10 Orientation factor
SF-PP 49.68 0.69
LF-PP 45.91 0.64
GMT 27.61 0.38
where Ef, Em, Vf, Vm are the fibre and matrix stiffness and
the fibre volume fraction, respectively, and ho and hl are
efficiency factors related to fibre orientation and length as
introduced by Cox and Krenchel [4,27,28]. The modulus
data in Fig. 2 can be modelled using a simple rearrangement
of this equation to give
Ec 2 V m Em
¼ ho Ef Vf ð2Þ
hl
Fig. 10 shows the tensile modulus data replotted following
Eq. (2). For comparison we have also added previously
reported tensile modulus data obtained from GMT samples
[4]. In this figure we can see clear significant differences
between the three forms of GF-PP, although we note no
significant effect of fibre diameter in the two SF-PP
materials. Using the linear regression parameters shown in
Fig. 10, we can calculate values for an orientation parameter
if we know the value of Ef and hl. The results are shown in
Table 1 where we have used a value of Ef ¼ 72 GPa and
values for hl calculated using the reported weight average
fibre lengths and the Cox shear lag method [4,27]. The final
values for the orientation factors in these systems follow
some of the generally accepted trends. Since the fibre
orientation in GMT is expected to be virtually random-in-
plane we obtain a value very close to the theoretical value of
0.375. In the case of the injection moulded composites, both
are significantly more oriented in the testing direction and
Fig. 11. Tensile stress at 1 and 2% strain versus fibre content (V LF19, B SF19, O SF14, filled symbols ¼ 2%, open symbols ¼ 1%).
the short fibre samples show the greatest degree of
orientation. This is in agreement with the view that the
orientation of the ‘core’ layer in long fibre moulding is more
random than that of short fibre mouldings, resulting in an
overall lower orientation factor.
Young’s modulus, which is estimated at zero strain, is a
very useful parameter in probing the microstructure of these
composites as demonstrated earlier. However, for practical
applications of these materials, the stiffness at higher levels
of strain is an important consideration. Fig. 11 shows data
for the measured composite stress at 1 and 2% strain. It is
clear from this figure that there is an increasing difference in
relative modulus for these three systems as the applied strain
is increased. Despite the similar levels of Young’s modulus
displayed in Fig. 2, there is a clear difference in the
composite stress levels (and consequently the secant
modulus) at higher strains. With increasing strain levels
the LF-PP clearly shows higher stress levels than the SF-PP
systems. Comparing the two SF-PP systems we also see that
lower fibre diameter is advantageous to secant modulus at
elevated strain levels.
In a recent series of papers, Thomason and Vlug,
reviewed the effect of fibre length on the stiffness, strength
and notched impact properties of random inplane glass
reinforced PP laminates [6]. They showed good correlation
between experimental data and theoretical equations for
predicting laminate properties. Using their equation we have
generated the data in Fig. 12 which shows the influence of
fibre length on the relative properties of a 30 wt% glass PP
laminate (interfacial shear strength (IFSS) ¼ 8 MPa, fibre
strength ¼ 2 GPa). It can be seen that the modulus, strength
and notched impact of GF-PP all follow a similar trend.
Property levels are low at short fibre length; as fibre length is
increased the properties go through a region of rapid
increase and then reach a plateau level for long fibres.
 J.L. Thomason / Composites: Part A 33 (2002) 1641–1652 1649

Fig. 12. Modelling of mechanical performance.

However, the length range in which the properties go for the SF-PP composite. These differences are mainly due
through a steep increase is different for the various to the different sizing compositions used in the production
properties. Thus, the composite stiffness reaches 90% of of the chopped and continuous glass fibre products used in
the maximum attainable with a fibre length of only 1.0 mm. these composites. Using these values of IFSS to generate
To attain 90% of the maximum composite strength we need theoretical values of the various composite mechanical
fibre of 7 mm or longer and to reach the 90% level of properties we obtain predictions for property improvements
notched impact we require 16 mm or longer. These length as shown in Table 2. Given all of the potential sources for
numbers are often referred to as ‘critical’ fibre lengths. error in this comparison, the agreement between theory and
However, there remains much confusion about the term experiment is excellent. This indicates that the theoretical
‘critical fibre length’ and much of that confusion is caused analysis referenced above which was based on GMT data is
by the fact, which is made clear here, that the ‘critical’ also applicable to injection moulded GF-PP.
length is dependent upon which composite property is being The impact resistance of composite materials is a
considered. complex subject where the data often reflects the
Although the data in Fig. 12 are based on GMT parameters of the test as much as the structure-performance
composites, these predictions may also be applied to other relationships of the materials under test. A major
forms of GF-PP since the effect of fibre orientation is, in discriminating factor is whether or not the sample under
principle, removed by the normalisation procedure. To test has been notched. This fact is reflected in the different
illustrate this point we have highlighted the length range of trends that we observe in Figs. 6 –9 between notched and
the LF-PP and SF-PP injection moulded composites in this unnotched impact results. From a structure-performance
study in Fig. 12. From these data we would expect order of viewpoint composite impact strength is influenced by all of
magnitude increase of 7% in modulus, 55% in strength, and the same parameters as tensile strength, although to
75% in notched impact going from ‘short’ to ‘long’ differing degrees. Notched impact data generally reflects
mouldings. Despite the fact that this plot is based on the energy required propagating an existing crack through
GMT data, it is clear that the order of magnitude for the
predicted increase in properties obtained by increasing fibre Table 2
length from 1.2 to 4.2 mm is of the same order of magnitude Comparison of theoretical and experimental effect of fibre length on
that we observe in our experimental results. One of the composite performance
important parameters in determining these theoretical
Improvement Modulus Strength Notched impact
curves is the value used for the IFSS. In another recent 1.2 –4.2 mm (%) (%) (%)
series of papers it has been shown how such values can be
obtained from a combination of the composite tensile Theory þ9 þ36 þ137
stress – strain curve and the residual fibre length distribution Expt Tensile þ3 þ51
[22,23]. We have carried out this analysis on the samples in Expt Flex þ6 þ33
Notched Izod þ122
this study and obtained values for IFSS at a 30 wt% fibre
Notched Charpy þ103
content of 7.7 MPa for the LF-PP composite and 16.2 MPa
1650 J.L. Thomason / Composites: Part A 33 (2002) 1641–1652
the sample, whereas unnotched impact data will depend on
both propagation and initiation energies. The effect of
fibres on the propagation of a crack through a thermo-
plastic matrix is to increase the volume in which energy
dissipation can take place. The presence of fibres also
increases the number of potential energy absorbing
mechanisms in the system. It has been proposed that
various energy dissipating mechanisms may operate when
a discontinuous fibre reinforced composite, fractures from
an existing notch [6]. Deformation and fracture of the
matrix takes place in an area in front of the crack tip. At
the same time the applied load, transferred by shear to the
fibres, may exceed the strength of the fibre – matrix
interface and debonding may occur. Transfer of stress
may still be possible to a debonded fibre via frictional
forces along the interface. Fibres may fracture if the fibre
stress level exceeds the local fibre strength. Fibres that
have fractured away from the crack interface will be pulled
out of the matrix, which may also involve energy
dissipation. There is still some debate over which, if any,
of these mechanisms predominates in the process.
However, it is clear that fibre volume fraction and length
(or aspect ratio) are important factors in all these
mechanisms since the volume of the energy absorbing
zone will be closely related to the number of fibres which
the crack must traverse and the volume around the crack
(tip) into which the fibres can distribute the deformation.
Furthermore, it is clear from Figs. 6 and 7 that the notched
impact strength of injection moulded GF-PP is increased
by increasing both the volume fraction and length of the
reinforcing fibres. It has recently been shown [6] that the
notched impact strength of GMT can also be modelled by a
‘rule of mixtures’ equation.
Uc ¼ Vf Ufx þ ð1 2 Vf ÞUm
Fig. 13. Fibre contribution to notched impact versus fibre content and aspect ratio (V LF19, B SF19, O SF14).
where Um is the notched impact strength of the matrix
and Ufx is the contribution to the composite impact
strength made by all of the different mechanisms caused
by the presence of the fibres. We can use this equation to
calculate the fibre contribution VfUfx to the notched
impact data in Figs. 6 and 7. Interestingly enough, when
we calculate this fibre contribution for either notched
Charpy or notched Izod from the data in Figs. 6 and 7
we get virtually identical data sets. When the data for
fibre volume fraction is then normalised by the fibre
aspect ratio we obtain a relationship as shown in Fig. 13.
A strong correlation is apparent in this figure. Although
this relationship is not linear, it does still bear a strong
resemblance to the general shape of the curves in Figs. 6
and 7. It is possible to fit either a single quadratic
equation to the data in Fig. 13 or two different straight
lines in high and low regions of the fibre content. This
indicates that the composite notched impact energy is
indeed closely related to fibre volume fraction and aspect
ratio. However, the lack of a single straight-line
correlation would appear to indicate that there are other
factors, such as adhesion or fibre strength, to be taken
into account in this relationship. Another important issue
to be considered is the relationship between fibre volume
fraction, fibre aspect ratio and fibre packing. In general it
can be understood that to pack more and more fibres into
a fixed volume both the level of fibre orientation must be
increased and/or the fibre aspect ratio will be decreased.
A number of authors [29 – 31] have indicated that the
maximum volume fraction obtainable with fully 3D
random orientation is related to the fibre aspect ratio by
the equation
L
ð3Þ Vf ¼C ð4Þ
D
 J.L. Thomason / Composites: Part A 33 (2002) 1641–1652
Fig. 14. Instrumented impact and unnotched Izod versus tensile strength.
where the value of the constant C is somewhere in the
range 4 –7. Eq. (4) can also be used [29 – 31] to give the
approximate maximum volume fraction for a random in-
plane case where C is in the range 15 –30. Examining
Fig. 13 we can see that this is exactly the range in which
we appear to get deviation from linearity. It has been
proposed that in the case of GMT (which can be closely
approximated to have a random in-plane orientation)
exceeding this value will lead to fibre fracture during
processing. It is not clear at this time whether exceeding
this, is also the case in injection moulding, where there
may be some degree of freedom in increasing the level
of fibre orientation which consequently increases the
value of C. Extension of the data set to higher volume
fractions may help to clarify this point.
The unnotched impact strength of many thermoplastic
resins is more than an order of magnitude greater than their
notched impact strength. In general, this ratio is significantly
reduced by the addition of fillers or fibres. Such reinforce-
ments can severely reduce the energy required to initiate a
critical flaw in the system while concurrently the presence
of fibres can significantly increase the resistance to crack
propagation (as discussed earlier). It has been shown that
fibre – matrix debonding at the fibre tips can occur well
before the failure of a composite under load [32,33]. These
debonded regions can act singly, or at higher strain levels
through multiple interactions, as critical flaws. However,
increasing addition of fibres can also lead to an increase in
unnotched impact by increasing the stiffness and therefore,
the energy required to achieve the strain levels for such
debonding to occur. This notching effect of fibres already
reaches its maximum influence at very low fibre contents, as
is clear in Fig. 8. Consequently, in the normal range of fibre
contents found in these composites, the resin properties
have only a limited influence on the unnotched impact
1651
strength and the composite performance in this type of test
is dominated by fibre and interface effects. This is clearly
shown in Fig. 9 where we observe the impact strength of PP
is lowered by an order of magnitude when the test
temperature is lowered below the polymers glass transition
temperature. In contrast, the composite performance is
relatively unaffected by the reduction in temperature and is
much more dependent on fibre length and concentration.
Indeed, it has been shown that the impact strength of GF-PP
will increase with lowering temperature, if the fibres are
long enough (greater than the critical fibre length). Fig. 14
shows unnotched Izod impact data and instrumented impact
data (at room temperature) plotted against the composite
tensile strength. A clear dependence is apparent in Fig. 14.
For this reason, we can expect the same fibre and interface
micro-mechanical parameters which influence composite
strength to be important in determining the level of
unnotched impact.
5. Conclusions
In a comparison of the mechanical performance of LF-PP
against SF-PP, at the same fibre diameter, over a range of
fibre contents, we have found that LF-PP gives significant
improvements in room temperature tensile and flexural
strength, notched and unnotched impact resistance. The
improvement in impact resistance is even higher at lower
test temperature. Although LF-PP and SF-PP exhibit no
significant difference in Young’s modulus the LF-PP shows
increasingly higher modulus over SF-PP as the strain is
increased. The effect of lowering the fibre diameter in SF-PP
has been shown to increase both strength and unnotched
impact, but not to the levels obtained with LF-PP at higher
1652 J.L. Thomason / Composites: Part A 33 (2002) 1641–1652
fibre diameter. Notched impact and modulus of SF-PP were
relatively unaffected by reduction of the fibre diameter.
The relative mechanical performance of injection
moulded LF-PP and SF-PP was shown to be of the same
order of magnitude as model predictions based on equations
obtained from a study on PP based GMT. These differences
in performance could be explained by the differences in
micro-mechanical parameters such as the fibre aspect ratio
and IFSS. With the exception of strain to failure, all the
investigated mechanical properties increased with increas-
ing fibre content. However, many of these properties
appeared to reach a maximum value in the 40– 50 wt%
fibre content range. The fibre contribution to notched impact
was found to scale directly with the fibre aspect ratio. Room
temperature unnotched impact scaled directly with tensile
strength. The composite strength was shown to be strongly
dependent on fibre aspect ratio and IFSS.
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