Investigation on mechanical, physico-chemical and thermal properties of recycled polyamide 6 reinforced with continuous glass fibers

The study primarily deals with recycled plastics, mainly polyamide 6 (rPA6), obtained from recycled fishing nets. These plastics are converted into reusable plate-like materials using the compression molding process. Moreover, the material was subjected to compression at different ratios of UD tape (4 wt%, 8 wt% and 12 wt%). In fact, reinforcement was added by incorporating a tape made of PA6 and unidirectional glass fibers, often known as PA6-GF UD tape. This research will investigate the physico-chemical structure, thermal properties, mechanical behavior, and microstructure of recycled Polyamide 6 (rPA6) and its composites, specifically rPA6 reinforced with glass fibers (rPA6GF) at different weight ratios. Besides this research makes a three analytical model (ROM, IROM, Hirsch) to predict the tensile properties of rPA6GF. The study's findings demonstrate that recycled plastics sourced from fishing nets displayed favorable mechanical characteristics, after the addition of reinforcement materials, such as tensile strength (74.65 MPa), elastic modulus (5.64 GPa), flexural strength (approximate to 155 MPa), impact resistance (143.36 KJ/m2), and hardness (79.5 D). While these improvements have been achieved, the presence of impurities and moisture still pose long-term performance problems that cause the degradation of the material and increased variability associated with it, complicating predictive modeling. Analytical modeling, while useful in explaining fiber reorientation, needs also to include these variabilities in order to improve long-term accuracy and performance prediction. The current study has approved the feasibility of locally reinforced composites with continuous fiber development by thermocompression, hence a promising approach toward the attainment of sustainable and reliable performance for the recycled plastic composites.