The mechanical properties and swelling anisotropy of short fiber-CR composites were examined using various fibers; Vinylon, Conex, rayon, cotton and carbon fiber. Those properties were affected by dispersion and orientation of fibers and adhesion between fibers and matrix.
Although Vinylon and Conex fibers held their original length after mixing, both rayon and cotton fibers were broken to about a quarter of the original length and carbon fibers to pieces of 150μm in length during mixing. The stress-strain curves of composites with non-treated fibers except Conex showed that the tensile stress increased linearly to the yield point at 5-20% extension with increasing strain. In the case of the composites with RFL-treated fibers, the tensile stress increased sharply as the strain increased and then the composites were fractured without yield. For cotton fibers RFL-treatment did not work as the reinforcement of the composites. Swelling of the composites took the minimum value in the longitudinal direction of fibers and the maximum value in the transverse direction. The young's modulus of the composites depended on the kind of fibers and the composites with Vinylon, Conex, and rayon had high moduli. The tensile stress and young's modulus of carbon fiber-CR composites were the lowest value among the short fiber-CR composites.
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