Development and verification of mechanical characteristics of a composite material made of a thermoplastic matrix and short glass fibers

The paper presents the results of computer modeling and prediction of the mechanical properties of composite materials with a polycarbonate matrix filled with short glass inclusions. At the micro-level, the influence of the volume of inclusions on the mechanical properties of the designed composite based on polycarbonate matrix is studied in the DIGIMAT (France) program. It was found that with a ratio of the sizes of inclusions in the range of 468÷60, the particles have a needle shape, and the material with such inclusions has a higher stress limit and elastic modulus than with a shape coefficient less than 50. The components of the fiber orientation tensor were also determined, at which the values of computer modeling are in good agreement with experimental data. The influence of the size of the finite element grid on the characteristics of the composite at the macro level was studied, and recommendations were given for choosing the size of the face of the finite element. The adequacy of computer models was confirmed by the results of field tests. The paper presents the results of testing flat samples made by injection molding technology. Mechanical tests were carried out for three variants of samples made of composite material based on a polycarbonate matrix with 10 %, 20 % and 30 % inclusions. The discrepancy between the experimental and computer results for samples with 10 %, 20 % content of short chopped fibers is explained by the influence of technological factors on the properties of the material at the macro-level. The conducted research allowed us to develop a computer modeling technique used at the stage of development of polymer composites based on thermoplastic matrices with short glass inclusions