Polyethylene-Kevlar Composite Foams II: Mechanical Properties

Abstract

Polyethylene-Kevlar composite foams were prepared by polymerization-compounding and melt blending to investigated and understand the effect of fibers. In the first part of this study (Zhang et al., Cellular Plastics, 22, (2003), 279), we reported on the preparation and morphology of these composite foams. In this second part, the effect of fibers on the mechanical properties of composite foams is investigated. Using several models for particulate composites, it was found that the normalized modulus of our composite foams can be well predicted by the simple Moore's empirical equation to take into account the foam morphology in combination with Berlin's approach and Rosen's model for critical fiber aspect ratio to account for the effect of fibers.