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(1)
113
(Kc/o'y) 2
Injection point
(2)
114
Injection points
0o
0o
Weld lin
El
Fig. 1
Injection mouldings used: (a) double-feed plaque,
160 x 160 mm, 3.2 mm thick; (b) ASTM bar, 215 mm long, 3.2 mm
thick
160
Injection
point
II
---2o--:.
!1
"".%%
II
I
1,~.2
"
"%% '"
..'"'"'"
Injection
poirtt
"-..
Core
y.."
....'"
j.
...
a
1
Fibre orientation and distdbufion uniform over central section (120 ram)
~Core ~
'Skin'.~'
Fig. 2
COMPOSITES
. APRIL 1985
115
l}
(3)
(4)
116
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
Instrumented falling weight impact
IFWI of plaques of short fibre-reinforced nylon
compounds provide complex force/deflection curves.
Often three or four cracks initiate and propagate in the
plaques. Analysis of the results is focussed on the force
to initiate fracture, together with the energies absorbed
by the specimen in the initiation of a crack and the
attainment of complete fracture, The details of analysis,
typical force/deflection curves for an initiation/
propagation failure process and the handling of the
statistical analysis are provided in Reference 7.
Scatter of impact data is an important consideration in
the evaluation of materials, particularly those
containing short fibre reinforcement. For example, in
IFW| tests on a batch of 50 mouldings of a 33% w/w
nylon 6.6 compound, it was observed that the failure
mechanism was identical on a macroscopic scale.
Analysis of the energy to initiate a crack showed that
the highest and lowest value differed by a factor of two
and that the coefficient of variation was 18%; quite a
large value for a sample with 50 'identical' specimens.
Consequently, meaningful impact evaluations can only
emerge when relatively large quantities of specimens
are tested, unless there are large differences in
toughness.
The fracture of these specimens also gave valuable
information on the predominant fibre direction. Crack
propagation would be expected to occur in the weakest
direction, which matched the direction of the melt
front That is, crack propagation and alignment of the
fibres in the surface layers was in the same direction.
These observations for the experiments on mouldings
with 33% w/w glass and other tests on mouldings with
different glass contents confirmed our views on fibre
orientation.
The effect of glass fibre content on the energy to
fracture a plaque and initiate a crack for nylon 6.6
matrix composites is shown in Fig, 3. The unreinforced
matrix exhibits relatively high energy absorption, but
this is reduced considerably as soon as small quantities
of fibres are present At fibre contents above about 10%
w / w , the crack initiation energy appears to be
15
13
-a
cture
~o
"8
E
Initiation
I
I0
I
20
I
30
[
40
50
Glass content ( % w / w )
Fig. 3 Effect of glass content on impact energy for nylon 6.6. Impact
energy at 31% is displaced from 33% for clarity
3O
~-
20
0
0
Nylon 6
I
20
ughened
nylon 6.6
I
30
I
40
I
50
COMPOSITES. APRIL 1 9 8 5
0.7
0.6
~' 0 . 5 ' Poor '
bond
0.4-
0.3
0.2
a.
0.1
0
0
' Good'
bond
i---3
I
I
1
I
r--'~
I
I
I
L--J
I
:-',,
_______L__
I
~__t_______l.______~
2
Crock
initiation energy ( J )
Fig. 5
Effect of fibre/matrix bond on crack initiation energy at 23C.
Sample size = 20
200 150 -
[
4
IO0
TE 3
5o
~ 2
I-0
0
I
IO
I
20
I
30
I
40
50
Fig. 6
Effect of glass content on yield stress (y) and fracture
toughness (Kc) for nylon 6.6 based composites. The yield stress value at
31% is displaced from 33% for clarity
117
750
=L
50(
"~ 25(:
Q
I
I0
I
20
I
30
I
40
I
50
Gloss content ( % w / w )
Fig. 7
Effect of glass content on ductility factor at 23C for compounds
based on nylon 6.6
Nylon 6.6
~ o
150
~ ~ ~ ~ ~'~"
"~N y l o n 6
,oo
v
b"
Toughened nylon 6.6
5O
I
I0
I
20
I
30
[
4.0
I
50
Toughened
Nylon 6 6
T E
no
:E
Nylon 6
I
10
I
20
I
30
I
40
I
50
118
1500
Toughened
I000
50C
Nylon 6 . 6
0
0
I
I0
I
20
I
30
I
40
I
50
Gloss content ( % w / w )
Fig. 10
Effect of glass content on ductility factor at 23C for
compounds based on various matrix materials. The ductility factor at 31%
is displaced from 33% for clarity
COMPOSITES. APRIL 1 9 8 5
33% Fibres
"~
I
I
I
2
Tensile
I
5
strain (%)
Fig. 12
Volume strain/axial strain plots for nylon 6.6 based
compounds. Dry material, 23C, cross-head speed 5 mm min -1
oI
0.8
~"
200
==
O6
Poor '
-$
g
I-
0.4--
IOO
bondJ
~f'Good'
bond
>
No
gloss
0.2
COMPOSITES. APRIL 1 9 8 5
Tensile stroin
compounds.
(%)
Fig. 13
Volume strain/axial strain plots for compounds
6.6. Dry material, 23C, cross-head speed 5 mm rain -1
based on
nylon
119
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
A single evaluation procedure would seem to be
inadequate for an evaluation of failure and fracture of
nylon composites. A combination of techniques is seen
to be more useful when collating a n u m b e r of
conclusions from this worlc
Impact toughness, assessed through IFWI, provides
good resolution of initiation and propagation
mechanisms and their monitoring, but does not
explain trends with glass fibre content. The fracture
mechanics results thus c o m p l e m e n t the impact data.
Total impact energy to fracture falls as fibre content
increases from zero to about 15% w/w. This is
explicable in terms of a larger increase in yield stress
than that for K c. Consequently, the ductility factor plot
of Fig. 7 shows good agreement with the impact energy
plot of Fig. 3.
The general agreement between ductility expressed
through ductility factor and toughness expressed
through an impact energy is encouraging. It is not
expected that complete accord between these
measurements can be possible because they both
contain failure and fracture mechanisms manifesting
themselves in different ways. Nevertheless, a full
comparison of the two techniques, as illustrated in Fig.
14 for all the materials, does provide a positive
correlation.
Evaluation of an individual failure mechanism
remains important. For example, the process of crack
propagation as monitored through fracture toughness
appears to agree with the Davidge and Green modeU 6
reinforcing the belief that an understanding of
toughness is at hand.
Other deformational processes, such as debonding` can
be identified through a volume strain v axial strain plot
and this technique confirms aspects of material
behaviour concerning reinforcement type and glassfibre coating.
The various material changes incorporated into our
samples, whether glass concentration, matrix type or
interfacial bond, have demonstrated the value of
combining various failure and fracture techniques. It is
not enough, however, merely to monitor a process: it is
apparent that some c o m p l e m e n t a r y understanding is
also important.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge the constructive
contributions from J.N. Gaitske]l in discussions and
provision of sample mouldings; from M. Whale and J.
Hastings in mechanical testing; from A.D. Curson in
optical microscopy: and from Pilkington Bros plc in
certain glass fibre samples.
This paper is based on one first presented at the
Concerence 'Testing Evaluation and Quality Control o f
Composites', held at the University of Surrey, UK. on
13-14 September 1983.
120
1500 -
x
A
3 0 - 3 3 % fibres
4 0 - 5 0 % fibres
::k
i'1
0
tooo-
XX
"~
500 -
A
0
x
X
X A
I
5
I
10
Frocture
I
15
I
20
I
25
energy (d)
Fig. 14
Relationship between ductility factor and impact fracture energy
for a range of compounds
REFERENCES
M . 'Short Fibre Reinforced Thermoplastics' (Rsch
Studies Press, J Wiley & Sons Ltd, 1982)
2 Dunn, C.M.R. and Turner, S. 'The characterisation of
reinforced thermoplastics for industry and engineering uses'
1
Folkes,