Volume 13, Issue 6, 2004

VOID CONTENT AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE FRACTURE BEHAVIOUR OF LONG FIBRE REINFORCED INJECTION MOLDED POLYPROPYLENE

Victor Iliev Rizov

Department of Technical Mechanics, University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, 1 Chr. Smirnensky blvd., 1046 – Sofia, Bulgaria
E-mail: V_RIZOV@FHE.UACG.BG; Fax: +359 2 8656863

(Received 6/04; accepted 12/04)

ABSTRACT
The influence of void content on the fracture performance of discontinuous long glass fibre reinforced injection molded polypropylene was studied. Compact tension specimens were machined from simple plate-tools and were loaded in a static testing machine in a laboratory environment. From the resulting load-displacement curves the fracture toughness was determined on the basis of the linear elastic fracture mechanics. It was found that higher void content causes a decrease in the fracture toughness.

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