Testing and Modeling the Tensile Strength Behavior of Glass Fibers, Fiber Bundles and Fiber Mat

Abstract

In this paper glass fibers, chopped roving pieces, and fiber mats were tested in case of emulsion bonded glass fiber mat samples. Relationships between the tensile strength properties of the different structural levels of the fiber mats were studied and fiber bundles as structural elements of fiber mats were modeled by idealized statistical fiber bundles developed by the Department of Polymer Engineering, BUTE. The geometrical and mechanical measurements were carried out by image processing methods and a computer aided tensile tester. The results proved that the modeling method gave a tool in understanding the failure behavior of the fiber mat samples and studying the effect of the structural parameters. The applicability of the modeling method is demonstrated by the good agreement with some measurements.