Abstract
Long glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites have been increasingly used in automotive parts due to their excellent mechanical properties and recyclability. However, the effects of strain rates on the mechanical properties and failure mechanisms of long glass fiber reinforced polypropylene composites (LGFRPPs) have not been studied systematically. In this study, the effects of strain rates (from 0.001 s−1 to 400 s−1) on the mechanical properties and failure mechanism of LGFRPPs were investigated. The results showed that ultimate strength and fracture strain of the LGFRPPs increased obviously, whereas the stiffness remained essentially unchanged with the strain rates from low to high. The micro-failure modes mainly consisted of fibers pulled out, fiber breakage, interfacial debonding, matrix cracking, and ductile to brittle (ductile pulling of fibrils/micro-fibrils) fracture behavior of the matrix. As the strain rates increased, the interfacial bonding properties of LGFRPPs increased, resulting in a gradual increase of fiber breakage at the fracture surface of the specimen and the gradual decrease of pull-out. In this process, more failure energy was absorbed, thus, the ultimate strength and fracture strain of LGFRPPs were improved.
Highlights
Glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic (GFRT) composites have a widespread utilization in automotive components due to their advantages of light weight, high specific strength, design flexibility, recyclability, etc. [1,2,3,4,5,6]
The GFRT composite can be divided into short, long, and continuous types of GFRT composite [7,8,9,10]
The effects of strain rates on mechanical properties of short GFRT (SGFRT) composite were investigated in several works [11,12,13,14,15]
Summary
Glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic (GFRT) composites have a widespread utilization in automotive components due to their advantages of light weight, high specific strength, design flexibility, recyclability, etc. [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic (GFRT) composites have a widespread utilization in automotive components due to their advantages of light weight, high specific strength, design flexibility, recyclability, etc. Scholars have been willing to pay attention to GFRT composites with respect to their failure behaviors and ability to resist loads, especially in the car collision. The effects of strain rates on mechanical properties of short GFRT (SGFRT) composite were investigated in several works [11,12,13,14,15]. The previous results indicated that the composite was a strain rate-dependent material, and its tensile strength and stiffness increased with the increasing of the strain rates. The effects of fiber content, strain rate, and weld-line on tensile strength, modulus, and fracture toughness of SGFRT composites with 0–40% of fiber weight content were
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