Mechanical Properties of Chopped Glass Fibre Reinforced Polyester

Abstract

Fiber - reinforced composite materials can be divided into two main categories, namely continuous or woven fiber reinforced materials and short fiber reinforced materials example chopped strand mat reinforced materials. The present study aimed to determine the effect of reinforcing unsaturated polyester with glass fiber chopped strand mat (GFCSM) by hand lay-up technique. The mechanical properties of the GFCSM polyester composite such as tensile strength, load extension, tensile modulus, energy-at-break, flexural modulus, load deflection, impact strength were analyzed and obtained. It was observed that the various mechanical properties were improved with incorporation of glass fiber chopped strand mat. The tensile strength increased from 29.6 MPA to 98.4 MPA, load-extension from 1906 N to 5904 N, energy-at-break was highest for composite sample with 2 plies of GFCSM mat decreasing slightly for samples with 3 plies. Also, increased flexural modulus, impact strength, load deflection was observed for the GFCSM composite against the neat polyester samples. However, a decrease in tensile modulus was observed for GFCSM composite indicating reduction in stiffness due to incorporation of the GFCSM mat.