PROCESSING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CARBON FIBER-POLYPROPYLENE AND GRAPHITE FIBER-POLYPROPYLENE COMPOSITES

In recent years, fiber reinforced thermoplastics (FRTP) composites are emerging as potential materials in many engineering fields. The high viscosity of polypropylene (PP) makes impregnation of reinforcements difficult. Film stacking and hot compression molding is the technique used for producing glass fiber (GF) and carbon fiber (CF) reinforced polypropylene composite laminates. A DSC test has been carried out on PP to determine the glass transition temperature. The process parameters such as mold temperature and pressure determine the resultant mechanical properties. Molding conditions, leading to different fiber and matrix bonding, were varied to process GF/PP and CF/PP composites. The resultant laminates were evaluated for tensile, flexural, interlaminar and impact properties as per ASTM standards. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) was carried out for determining the storage modulus and damping properties. This study has highlighted the static and dynamic mechanical properties of the thermoplastics composites as influenced by the processing parameters.