New investigations on higher mechanical properties of woven glass fiber reinforced SMC composites

Abstract

There are many different types of glass fibers that can be used in the composites, which are fabricated using a sheet molding compound (SMC) process. The SMC composites produced from different type of glass fibers with unsaturated polyester resin have been investigated based on their microstructure and mechanical properties. The composites produced from woven glass fiber had a better mechanical properties compared with chopped glass fiber reinforced SMC composites. The SEM analysis revealed that resin pull-out formation occurred in the composite reinforced with randomly distributed glass fibers whereas this formation was not detected with woven glass fibers. A good agreement was found between the mechanical analyses and SEM studies for the comparison of random or woven glass fibers reinforcement.