Hydrothermal Aging and Mechanical Property of Injection Molded Jute/Glass/Polypropylene Hybrid Composites

Abstract

As well known, the durability of the material is always considered in the safety design of the materials. Therefore in this study, the property of injection molded hybrid jute/glass reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites was firstly investigated after the hot water immersion experiment. The hydrothermal aging performance was investigated in the 80 °C hot water immersion experiment with a series of immersion time and different fraction of jute fiber and the effects of hot water immersion on the mechanical properties of composites have been evaluated based on the tensile test. Water absorption and weight loss of the reinforced PP composites were recorded and discussed. It is found that with the increase of jute fiber content, the tensile modulus is increased. However, the increasing of jute fiber content decreased the tensile strength of hybrid composites. For the effect of hydrothermal aging, the weight by water absorption was significantly affected by the jute fiber content. The specimens with higher jute fiber content absorbed water easier and significant materials loss by aging was also occurred. Tensile properties of hybrid composites which contain jute fiber showed the lower tensile strength than the monotonic glass/PP composite. It is considered that the hydrophilic property of jute fiber decreases the resistance of the hybrid composite in high humidity environment.