Mechanical Properties of a Polyester Fibre Glass Composite

In the present work, mechanical properties of laminates fabricated by Hand lay-up technique using fibre glass (woven-mat) of density 3.6 N/m² and general purpose polyester resin was investigated. Fibre glass polyester composite samples were fabricated with different fibre glass volume fractions (A-0.05, B-0.10, C-0.15, C-0.20, D-0.25 and E-0.30). The materials properties; ultimate tensile strength, Young's modulus of elasticity, elastic strain, and impact strength of the materials were determined through standard tests on standard test samples. It was observed that the various mechanical properties (excluding the impact strength) were improved with increase in fibre glass volume and that the fibre glass- polyester composite is characterized by high toughness. It was concluded that the optimum fibre glass volume fraction for the composite is 0.25.