A simple illustration of structure-properties relationships for short fiber-reinforced thermoplastics

In this paper, a simple theoretical model for elastic properties of short fiber‐reinforced thermoplastic (SFRTP) composite systems is described, which considers the effect of two important structural parameters, viz., fiber aspect ratio distribution and fiber orientation distribution. An experimental technique for producing SFRTP samples featuring a fairly uniform fiber orientation is described, and a broad set of experimental results on the mechanical properties of SFRTP systems based on polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene (PE) resins with several fiber loadings is presented. The use of the simple theoretical model to analyze the experimentally‐determined elastic properties is discussed.