The Fracture Behavior of Glass Fiber/Recycled PET Composites

The potential offered by glass fiber reinforced composite materials based on a recycled PET matrix has been investigated. Laminates containing both woven glass fabrics and chopped strand mats have been manufactured and tested under both quasi-static and impact conditions. Polished sections from a number of laminates have highlighted the high degree of fiber wetting and the low level of voiding in the laminates. Three point bend tests and Charpy impact tests on simple beam-like samples have shown that recycled polymer composites offer a range of mechanical properties similar to those associated with corresponding laminates based on virgin polymer matrices. A series of interlaminar fracture tests on the woven fiber composites have shown that the delamination resistance of these materials is comparable to that exhibited by relatively tough systems such as carbon fiber reinforced PEEK.