Abstract
Fiber reinforced plastics is increasingly used to improve fuel efficiency and motion performance of vehicles by weight reduction. Especially, short fiber reinforced thermoplastics is expected to expand its demand because of its superior moldability, productivity, and recyclability. In this study, influences of glass fiber diameter and cross sectional shape on the impact properties of short glass fiber reinforced polyamide were investigated using split Hopkinson pressure bar. In the tensile test, specimen with smaller fiber diameter showed higher tensile strength. Glass fiber reinforced polyamide with flat glass fiber also showed higher strength than that with normal glass fiber. On the other hand, a significant influence of fiber diameter and cross sectional shape on mechanical properties was not found in the compressive test. As a result of the fracture surface observation using scanning electron microscope and the average fiber length measurement, it was revealed that interfacial fracture was a dominant fracture mechanism under tensile loading whereas matrix fracture was dominant under compressive loading. Consequently, the influence of fiber diameter and cross sectional shape on impact properties was different under compressive and tensile loading.
