Fibre Volume Fraction and Impact Strength Analysis of Reinforced Polyester Composites

Abstract

Improper fibre volume analyses in most reinforced composites poses great challenges in polymer industries which results to the production of composites with low mechanical strength. This study investigates the fibre volume fraction and impact strength analysis of reinforced polyester composites. In this study, E-Glass fibres (hard and soft mat) were mixed with polyester at different composition by volume. The E-glass serves as reinforcement to the polyester, fourteen test specimens of the reinforced composites were developed with each of them having dimension of 210mm length, 150mm width and 50mm thickness respectively. The properties of the developed reinforced composites such as volume fraction, impact energy, and impact strength were analysed from the values obtained from compact tension and Charpy impact test respectively. The results obtained shows that the effective thickness of the developed reinforced composites ranged from 60mm to 100mm at fibre fraction which ranges from 0.32 to 0.50. The results obtained also shows that the specimens containing woven roving have greater resistance to fracture and impact damages due to high fibre volume fraction. Hence, the laminates impact strength is a function of its fibre volume fraction.