Theoretical models for stiffness prediction of short fibre composites

Abstract

The short natural fibre reinforced polymer matrix composites are a good cost-effective option in a multitude of non-structural applications. The estimation of elastic moduli of such composites is important during the initial design phase. In this work, a brief introduction to the theoretical models to determine elastic moduli of short fibre composites is presented. Various theoretical models like Halpin-Tsai model, Mori-Tanaka model with fibre orientation averaging, alongwith the rule-of-mixtures and the Hashin-Shtrikman bounds are employed to obtain the elastic properties of composites. Although some of these models have been used for short glass fibre composites, in this study, the applicability of these models to natural fibre composites has been explored. The elastic properties obtained from the theoretical model are compared with experimentally obtained values of injection moulded short jute fibre-polypropylene composites from our other work. The model which satisfactorily results in better elastic property predictions of short fibre composites amongst the presented theoretical models has been highlighted. It has been observed that the fibre orientation averaging is imperative to account for random fibre orientation and yield better elastic property predictions.