Influence of glass fiber content on the morphology and mechanical properties in injection molded polypropylene composites

Abstract Propropylene was reinforced with various concentrations of glass fiber (0, 10, 20, 28, and 35 percent by weight) and standard test samples were prepared by injection molding under identical conditions. The influence of fiber concentration on the morphology and mechanical properties was investigated using polarizing microscope, scanning electron microscope, Instron universal testing machine, etc. Tensile strength, tensile modulus, and flexural strength were found to increase with glass fiber content, while impact strength was reduced. These observed changes in mechanical properties were explained in terms of alterations in skin‐core morphology, spherulite size, transcrystallinity, etc. The efficiency of reinforcement factor (K) was calculated for all the composites. It was found that K decreases with the increase of fiber concentration. This study attempts to correlate fiber concentration and polymer morphology with mechanical properties and the overall efficiency of reinforcement. This would help in optimizing the fiber content to prepare molded composites with desired mechanical properties.