Fibre Volume Fraction and

Laminate Thickness

How much fibre?

How much reinforcement?

Weight fraction
Used in manufacture.
May refer to fibre or resin - 'GRP' manufacturers will
specify a glass content of (e.g.) 25 wt%; a prepreg
supplier might give a resin content of 34 wt%.

Volume fraction
Used in design to calculate composite properties.
Almost always refers to fibre content.

Weight fraction volume fraction

conversion
For the special case of a two-component
composite (eg fibre and matrix):

Wf / f
Vf
Wf / f (1 Wf ) / m

fVf
Wf
fVf m (1 Vf )

Volume fraction - weight fraction conversion

(epoxy resin matrix)

fibre volume fraction

1
0.8
glass

0.6

HS carbon

0.4

aramid

0.2
0
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

fibre weight fraction

0.8

Maximum fibre volume fraction

Theoretically, a unidirectional fibre composite could have V f
90%.
In practice, fibres cannot be perfectly aligned.
Maximum volume fraction depends both on the fibre form and
method of manufacture - for a unidirectional fibre composite:
Vf 60-70%.

Maximum fibre volume fraction

For other forms of reinforcement, maximum volume fraction also depends
on the detailed arrangement of the fibres.
The following values are typical:
stitched non-crimp
woven fabric 0.4 - 0.55
random
(chopped strand mat)

0.6

0.15 - 0.25

How much fibre?

Commercial reinforcements are characterised by
their areal weight (Aw). This is simply the weight
(usually given in g) of 1 m2 of the reinforcement. Aw
depends on many factors - fibre density, tow or
bundle size, weave style, etc.
Aw may range from 50 g/m2 or less (for lightweight
surfacing tissues), up to more than 2000 g/m 2 for
some heavyweight non-crimp fabrics.

Laminate thickness
Two laminates, both containing 5 plies of reinforcement:
fibre
matrix

high matrix content

low matrix content

low fibre content

high fibre content

= thick laminate

= thin laminate

Laminate thickness
Fibre volume fraction is thus inversely proportional
to laminate thickness.
If the fibre content and
laminate thickness are
defined, we can calculate
the fibre volume fraction:

nAw
Vf
f d

If the fibre content and

volume fraction are
defined, we can calculate
the laminate thickness:

nAw
d
fVf

Ply thickness vs fibre volume fraction (glass)

ply thickness (mm)

3
Area weight

2.5

200 g/m2

300 g/m2

1.5

450 g/m2

600 g/m2

0.5
0
0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

fibre volume fraction

0.6

0.7

Ply thickness vs fibre volume fraction (HS carbon)

ply thickness (mm)

1.6

Area weight

1.4
1.2

100 g/m2

150 g/m2

0.8
0.6

200 g/m2

0.4
0.2

500 g/m2

300 g/m2

0
0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

fibre volume fraction

0.7

0.8

Example calculations
1. What will be the thickness of a laminate
consisting of 2 layers of 450 g/m 2 chopped
strand mat if a resin to glass ratio (by weight)
of 2:1 is used?
2. What fibre volume fraction is achieved if
2

Rules of Mixture
for Elastic Properties

'Rules of Mixtures' are mathematical

expressions which give some property of
the composite in terms of the properties,
quantity and arrangement of its
constituents.
They may be based on a number of
simplifying assumptions, and their use in
design should tempered with extreme
caution!

Density
For the special case of a fibre-reinforced matrix:

Vf f Vmm
Vf f (1 Vf )m
Vf (f m ) m
since Vf + Vm = 1

Rule of mixtures density for

glass/epoxy composites
3000

2500

kg/m 3

2000
1500

1000
500
0
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

fibre volume fraction

0.8

Micromechanical models for stiffness

Unidirectional ply - longitudinal

tensile modulus
E1 = Ef Vf + Em ( 1-Vf )
Note the similarity to the rules of mixture
expression for density.
In polymer composites, Ef >> Em, so
E 1 Ef Vf

This rule of
mixtures is a
good fit to
experimental
data
(source: Hull, Introduction
to Composite Materials,
CUP)

Generalised rule of mixtures for

tensile modulus

E = L o Ef Vf + Em (1-Vf )
L is a length correction factor. Typically, L 1
for fibres longer than about 10 mm.
o corrects for non-unidirectional reinforcement:
unidirectional
biaxial
biaxial at 45o
random (in-plane)
random (3D)

o
1.0
0.5
0.25
0.375
0.2

60
50
40

UD

30

biaxial

20

CSM

10
0
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

fibre volume fraction

Rule of mixtures tensile modulus

(T300 carbon fibre)
200
tensile modulus (GPa)

tensile modulus (GPa)

Rule of mixtures tensile modulus

(glass fibre/polyester)

150
UD
100

biaxial
quasi-isotropic

50
0
0

0.2

0.4
fibre volume fraction

0.6

0.8