3 - Major factors affecting the performance of short fibre reinforced polymers

Abstract

There are a few major factors that play critical roles in determining the mechanical performance of SFRP composites. These major factors include fibre and matrix properties, fibre–matrix interface characteristics, fibre length distribution, fibre orientation distribution and fibre volume fraction. This chapter describes these major factors. Some of the factors, for example, fibre length distribution (FLD) and fibre orientation distribution (FOD), are dependent on processing conditions. Consequently, measuring methods and definitions of FLD and FOD are given in this chapter.