An Experimental Investigation on the Mechanical Properties of Glass Fiber Woven Roving Fabrics/Chopped Strand Mats Hybrid Composites Manufactured by Different Processes

In this paper, the mechanical properties of glass fiber reinforced unsaturated polyester resin composite panels were investigated. To understand the effect of chopped strand mats on the mechanical properties of the composites, specimens with certain volume fraction of chopped strand mats manufactured by Vacuum Infusion Molding Process (VIMP) and Hand Lay-up techniques were tested under tensile, bending and impact loadings respectively. It was observed that the chopped strand mats enhanced effectively the mechanical properties of the composite panels manufactured by Hand Lay-up method, while the mechanical properties of the composite panels manufactured by VIMP decreased.