Comparison of interfacial shear strength from fibre pull out and mechanical testing in polypropylene sisal composites

In this work we investigated the interfacial shear strength for the system sisal polypropylene. Composites containing different chop lengths were produced via extrusion and injection moulding. These test specimens were investigated for tensile and impact properties, as well as the final fibre length in the composite was determined. A simple rule of mixtures model was applied to evaluate the mechanical testing for the interfacial shear strength, which was compared with the one retrieved from single fibre pull out tests. We found good applicability of the rule of mixtures to evaluate the composite for the interfacial shear strength.