The influence of velocity on the impact strength of glass reinforced polypropylene

Abstract The influence of impact velocity, between 1 and 8.7 meters per second (m/s) (2.2 to 19.5 mph), on the impact behavior of polypropylene, reinforced with 20 volume percent continuous glass fibers, was investigated in a 3‐point bend test at 21 °C. The ratio of specimen span to thickness, which has a profound effect on the observed results, was varied between 5.3 and 26. An attempt to apply simple beam theory for the analysis of the initial specimen response to the high loading rate was successful, except for the lower than expected values of shear modulus. The stress to break and the tensile and shear moduli were found to increase along with velocity. The dependence of impact energy on velocity was observed to be affected by the span to thickness ratio: a positive dependency was observed at low ratios and none at high ratios. This is different from the negative dependency reported for polypropylene reinforced with short fibers, and is attributed to the influence of the continuous glass fibers on the impact behavior of the composite.