Experimental investigations for variability quantification of vibration response of short(−natural)‐fiber‐reinforced polypropylene

Abstract Short‐fiber‐reinforced‐materials are widely used in industry today. In this paper, microstructure and modal analyses are performed on short‐glass‐fiber‐reinforced polypropylene (PPGF) and short‐natural‐fiber‐reinforced polypropylene (PPNF), to study possible links between the first natural frequency and fibers' orientation and quantify the associated variability. In view of this, different specimens were tested with clamped‐free boundary conditions. The microstructural analysis, performed with micro‐computed tomography studies fibers' properties in injection‐molded plates. This study shows the importance of considering real fibers' orientation for modal predictions.