Properties of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyamide 6-Polypropylene Composites under Tensile Loading

In the present study, polymer blends of polyamide 6 (PA6) and polypropylene (PP) with different proportions were reinforced by 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% glass fiber respectively and these blend composites were processed using injection molding method. Experimentations were carried out under tensile loading in order to find the properties such as tensile strength, tensile modulus, yield strength and elongation at break for the prepared composites. Test data revealed that composite properties are influenced by the amount of fiber content. The obtained results show that yield strength of polymer blend is low whereas yield strength of composite is much higher when fiber content increases to 20%. The obtained data also exhibited that elastic modulus of the polymer blend is low and it increases significantly with addition of fiber content. Polymer blend shows low tensile strength and the composite exhibits steady increase in tensile strength as the fiber content is increased. Furthermore, polymer blend exhibits very high tensile elongation whereas, blend composites show much lower elongation, particularly the composite of 20% fiber content shows significantly reduced elongation. In addition, fractured composite specimens were observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).