Elastic and Strength Properties of Continuous/Chopped Glass Fiber Hybrid Sheet Molding Compounds
SourceHybrid sheet molding compounds containing both continuous and chopped glass fiber reinforcements have been modeled as laminates of continuous and chopped fiber plies. It is shown that the elastic moduli and the tensile strengths of a series of hybrid compositions with different ratios of continuous to chopped random glass fiber can be calculated from the same constituent plies. Hybrid molding compounds ranging from 100 percent chopped random glass to 90 percent continuous glass fiber at the same total glass content were tested for elastic moduli and ultimate tensile strengths in the axial and transverse directions. Good agreement is obtained with the laminate model calculations. Similar models for other hybrid molding compounds such as XMC materials are developed and the model predictions are compared with data in the literature.