Experimental Investigation of Short Glass Fiber Reinforced Polypropylene hybrid composite with the addition of CaCO3 nanofiller for Automotive Body Panel

Composites are used in various technologies by replacing traditional materials due to their high strength-to-weight ratio. The automotive industry always strives to use lightweight with high strength materials for the sake of fuel efficiency and green technology. This research paper aims to investigate the mechanical performance of short glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene hybrid composites with the addition of calcium carbonate at various compositions. These mechanical properties are tensile strength, flexural strength, impact strength, and water absorption capacity. The glass fiber is chopped with 3 mm length as per the standard and oriented randomly in the hosting matrix. A composite comprising short glass fibers with 5 wt%, 10 wt% %, and 15 wt% % in collaboration with a constant 2.5 wt% of CaCO3 reinforced polypropylene has been fabricated using hot compression molding. Following the fabrication of the sample, the specimens were prepared using ASTM standards for the purpose of tensile test, flexural test, impact test, and water absorption test. The results of the composite revealed that the tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact strength have shown an increment as the concentration of short glass fiber increases until reaching out the optimum concentration. Beyond the optimum concentration, those properties have declined. However, the water absorptive capacity of the material increases as glass fiber is added to the polypropylene. The optimum composite composition based on the mechanical performance was identified. Therefore, the 10 wt% of short glass fiber with 2.5 wt% of CaCO3 reinforced 87.5 wt% of polypropylene composite was the optimum. Moreover, to study the effect of CaCO3 in the composite compositions, the paper further studied the optimum composite without the addition of CaCO3.