A novel technique for the interfacial characterisation of glass fibre-polypropylene systems

In the present work, a new technique was developed to determine the interfacial properties of two opaque glass fibre/polypropylene (GF/PP) systems via fragmentation tests on single filament model composites. Fragmentation tests usually require the fibre inside the composites to be completely aligned in the loading direction. Since PP matrices are non-transparent, it is not possible to guarantee a priori this condition. Hence, a novel technique was developed to determine the inclination of the filaments embedded in the composites. The fibre-polymer systems were also evaluated by, comparing their interfacial properties with the overall mechanical properties determined on pultruded GF/PP composites. The present work shows that the knowledge of the interfacial properties is important, not only to compare alternative fibre/matrix systems, but also to assess whether the level of adhesion in these systems is adequate to fabricate composites with good mechanical properties. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.