Creep fatigue in engineered wood fiber and plastic compositions

Creep behaviour of unmodified and functionally modified thermoplastic‐wood fibre composites was studied. For PVC, PE and PP‐based composites creep is strongly dependent on the amount of load, time and temperature. A small rise in the temperature above ambient temperature increased creep significantly for PVC‐woodfiber composites. Instantaneous creep resistance of woodfibre‐filled PP is higher than that of PE‐based composites. PP and PE‐based wood composites were modified with maleic and maleimide compounds. Maleic or maleimide modification of woodfibre improved transient creep behaviour of PP‐woodfibre composite but it did not show practically any effect on instantaneous creep. A mathematical model has been proposed to predict creep behaviour of PVC, PP an PE‐based wood fiber composites. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 77: 260–268, 2000