Mechanical Characterization of Composites Manufactured by RTM Process: Effect of Fiber Content, Strain Rate and Orientation

High performance composites are exposed to severe loading and environmental conditions. In this work, mechanical properties of Fiberglass Reinforced Polyester (FRP) manufactured by resin transfer molding were evaluated. The effect of the strain rate on mechanical properties under three quasi-static testing conditions, four fiber contents and several orientations was studied using instrumented tensile tests. A model was fitted to predict Tensile strength, Young's modulus and shear modulus and the failed samples were analyzed to understand the failure mechanisms. The results showed that the fitted model is reliable enough to conclude about the effect of the fiber volume fraction and the strain rate on the mechanical properties. Young's modulus and tensile strength increased when the strain rate is higher. Tensile strength also increased with fiber content (Vf) up to Vf = 41% .The predominant failure mechanism is fiber rupture for the main directions and for the off-axis directions, the failure mechanisms are fiber pullout and delamination.