Mechanical Properties of Auxetic and Conventional Polypropylene Random Short Fibre Reinforced Composites

Abstract

In this study, prior to the production of composites, auxetic and conventional polypropylene (PP) fibres were produced by the melt spinning technique. The fibres were tested and analysed in terms of Poisson's ratio, linear density, elongation at break and tenacity. The auxetic and conventional PP stable fibre reinforced composites were fabricated by the hand lay up method. Several mechanical properties of the composites were examined, including tensile strength, Young's modulus, elongation at break, energy absorption, impact velocity and damage size. SEM analysis was also conducted to identify microscopic changes to the overall composite structures. It was found that the auxetic fibre reinforced composites (7.5% and 10%) had the highest tensile strength and the auxetic fibre reinforced composite (5%) had the highest Young's modulus. The highest energy absorption was observed for the composite made with 10% auxetic fibre loading.