Effects of fiber aggregates on the transverse mechanical behavior of commingled PP–glass fiber composites

In previous articles, mechanical models were proposed to predict the reinforcement effect of polymers by particulates as well as unidirectional fibers over wide ranges of volume fraction of fillers and temperatures. On the basis of image analyses and the definition of representative morphological motifs, these models are able to predict the viscoelastic properties of quasi‐isotropic and unidirectional composites or to extract the behavior of a phase, such as the interphase in filled rubbers or the transcrystalline phase in semicrystalline polymers. In this work, based on a 2D image processing, this approach is extended to predict the viscoelastic properties of commingled PP–glass fiber composites. It is shown that fiber aggregates, composed of fibers and surrounding polymer, might be considered as the reinforcing phase. In addition, the different failure modes of these composites are separated as a function of the volume fraction of fillers or temperature. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 3466–3476, 2006