Dynamic mechanical study on unidirectional polyethylene fibers-PMMA and glass fibers-PMMA composite laminates

✍ Scribed by Nirmal Saha; Amar Nath Banerjee; B. C. Mitra

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 435 KB
• Volume: 60
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(19960502)60:5<657::aid-app2>3.0.co;2-p

✦ Synopsis

Unidirectional (UD) composite laminates based on glass fibers (GF) and high-performance polyethylene fibers (PEF) were prepared with partially polymerized methyl methacrylate (MMA) at room temperature and then heated at 55°C (well below the softening point of PEF) for 2 hrs. The viscoelastic behavior of the composite was studied through dynamic mechanical analysis at different volume fractions of fibers. Several parameters such as storage modulus (E'), loss modulus (E"), and loss factor or damping efficiency (tan a) were determined to be between 40 and 160°C in a resonant frequency mode. All the properties were compared between the two composite laminates. It was found that the shift of the glass transition temperature (T,) due to incorporating fibers was higher in the case of a PEF-reinforced composite than that of a GF-reinforced composite at the same volume fraction of fibers. It was also observed that the efficiency of both the composites decreases with the increase in the volume fraction of fibers.