Stiffness behaviour of injection moulded short glass fibre/impact modifier/polypropylene hybrid composites

The stiffness behaviour of injection moulded short glass fibre/impact modif ier/polypropylene hybrid composites has been investigated in this work by t heoretical predictions and experiments. Predictions from the self-consisten t method were found to be in good agreement with test results for the impac t modifier/polypropylene blends. By taking into account of the fibre orient ation distributions in the skin and core layers, the values of Young's modu lus for the skin and core layers were predicted by employing Eshelby's equi valent inclusion method and the average induced strain approach. The predic tion of the values of Young's modulus for the whole sample was obtained by applying the simple mixture theory of laminated composites to the predicted results for the skin and core layers. Good correlation between predicted a nd experimental Young's modulus values were found. (C) 1999 Published by El sevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.