Glass bead filled polystyrene composites: morphology and fracture

Summary

The objectives of this work are to describe the fracture behaviour of a material model composed by polystyrene and different amounts of solid glass beads. Seven compositions with beads content ranging between 0 % and 40 % by weight, have been prepared. A morphology study has been carried out to examine the microstructure developed during injection moulding. Fracture parameters (K_IC, G_IC and J_IC) were calculated at high and low strain rate as a function of particle content. The maximum reinforcement was found at middle levels of glass beads (6%–15%wt). The composite fracture behaviour at low strain rate was always brittle although it was found that beads tend to stabilize its propagation. At high strain rate, the particle reinforcement effect is lower, however a small increment in K_IC and G_IC was found.