Development of glass fiber, wollastonite reinforced polypropylene hybrid composite: Mechanical properties and morphology

Hybridization with small amounts of mineral fibers makes these glass fiber composites more suitable for technical applications. This study focused on the performance of injection molded short wollastonite fiber and chopped glass fiber reinforced hybrid polypropylene composites. Results showed that hybridization of glass fiber and wollastonite was found to be comparable to that of polypropylene glass fiber composites. Analysis of fiber length distribution in the composite and fracture surface was performed to study fiber breakage fracture mechanism. The simultaneous compounding of polypropylene with two fillers was done to obtain a hybrid composite. The mechanical properties of hybrid, injection molded, chopped glass fiber/wollastonite/polypropylene composites have been investigated taking into account the effect of hybridization by these two types of fillers. This system is expected to have considerable mechanical properties, good surface finish and low cost. It has been found that the tensile, flexural, and impact properties of the filled polypropylene were higher than those of unfilled polypropylene. The hybrid effects of the tensile strength and modulus were studied by the rule of hybrid mixtures (RoHM) using the values of single fiber composites.