Capillary effect in the impregnation of jute fiber mat reinforced polypropylene composites.

The main objective of this article was to study the capillary effects during the impregnation of polypropylene resin in the jute fiber mats. The static equilibrium contact angles between polypropylene matrix and fibers were measured and the dynamic impregnation of matrix in the fiber mats was researched in detail. The results show that the static contact angles are clam-shell shape. The capillary effects present little values in the dynamic impregnation. The preparation for low void composites should be performed below the critical resin flow velocity of 0.13 µm/s for polypropylene resin and 0.21 µm/s for polypropylene/maleated polypropylene blend resin, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]