ARTICLE IN PRESS

POLYMER
TESTING
Polymer Testing 25 (2006) 544–552
www.elsevier.com/locate/polytest

Material Behaviour

A study of the mechanical behaviour of a glass fibre reinforced

polyamide 6,6: Experimental investigation
B. Mouhmida,, A. Imada, N. Benseddiqa, S. Benmedakhèneb, A. Maazouzc
a
Laboratoire de Mécanique de Lille, CNRS UMR 8107, Ecole Polytech’Lille, Université de Lille1, Cité Scientifique,
Avenue Paul Langevin, 59 655 Villeneuve d’Ascq cedex, France
b
AETech—Acoustic Emission Technology, 66, Av de Landshut, BP 50149, 60201 Compiègne cedex, France
c
INSA de Lyon, Avenue Jean Capelle, 69621 Villeurbanne cedex, France
Received 30 January 2006; accepted 12 March 2006

Abstract

In this experimental work, we studied the mechanical behaviour of a short glass fibre reinforced polyamide frequently
used in the automobile industry.
In order to investigate the influence of glass fibre content, temperature and strain rate, we carried out a series of uniaxial
tensile loadings on an unfilled polyamide and glass fibre reinforced polyamide with different weight fractions: 15, 30 and
50 wt%.
Experimental results showed that the studied composite is a strain rate, temperature and fibre volume fraction
dependant material. Both elastic modulus and tensile strength increase with strain rate and decrease with temperature.
Glass fibre reinforced PA66 exhibits improvement in its mechanical strength. The evolution of the normalized modulus
and tensile strength as functions of relative density can be described by a type of power function.
The acoustic emission (AE) technique, which is recognized as an effective tool for non-destructive testing and material
evaluation, has been used to determine the damage threshold and obtain information about fracture mechanisms in the
studied composites.
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was made on the fracture surfaces to visualize the damage process: fibre
fracture, matrix rupture and interface rupture.
r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Polyamide 66; Glass fibres; Mechanical behaviour; Damage; Acoustic emission

1. Introduction injection rails, steering column switches) and safety

Glass fibre reinforced polyamides continue to be
used with increased frequency in many applications,
such as stressed functional automotive parts (fuel
Corresponding author. Fax: +3 28 76 73 11.
E-mail address: bouchaib.mouhmid@polytech-lille.fr
(B. Mouhmid).
parts in sports and leisure (snowboard bindings).
These materials are known for their stiffness,
toughness and resistance to dynamic fatigue.
Fibre reinforced thermoplastics compounds may
be processed by conventional methods, such as
injection moulding, and offer improvements in
mechanical properties over unreinforced ones.
These composites compete with metals in many

0142-9418/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.polymertesting.2006.03.008
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B. Mouhmid et al. / Polymer Testing 25 (2006) 544–552
engineering applications because of their ease of
fabrication, light weight and economy. However,
there are problems concerning material defects such
as voids or cracks that may be present or initiated in
one of three regions: the matrix, the fibre or the
fibre/matrix interface [1]. The mechanical properties
of thermoplastic composites containing short fibres
have been the subject of much attention. These
properties result from a combination of the fibre
and the matrix properties and the ability to transfer
stresses across the fibre/matrix interface, but also
depend on the injection conditions such as screw
and barrel parameters, mould temperature and
design [2–5]. Variables such as fibre ratio, diameter,
length, orientation and the interfacial strength are
of prime importance to the final properties of the
thermoplastic composites according to the studies
led by Thomasson [6] and Shao-Yun Fu [7].
In this study, we characterized mechanically the
behaviour of glass fibre reinforced and unreinforced
polyamide 66. The effects of glass fibre content,
temperature and strain rate have been investigated.
An AE monitoring technique was used to identify
different types of failure in the investigated compo-
sites. In order to visualize the damage process,
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was
made on the fracture surface of the specimens.
The stress–strain response of the PA66 depends
strongly on the humidity conditions. PA66 is
considered as dry when the water absorption is less
than 0.2% and saturated at 7.2%. The tensile
strength in glass fibre reinforced PA66 is 50%
higher in the dry state than in the saturated one [22].
2. Experimental procedure
2.1. Material and tensile test conditions
Chopped E-glass and PA66 were used to produce
moulded composites with 0, 15, 30 and 50% (wt)
glass content. The glass bundles and pre-dried PA66
pellets were dry blended to the desired glass content
and compounded on a single screw extruder. The
compounds were moulded on an 80 ton moulding
machine. Compounding and moulding tempera-
tures were respectively 275 and 280 1C with a mould
temperature of 80 1C.
The mechanical properties testing were performed
at a relative humidity of 50% using ISO 527
specimens (Fig. 1). The tensile tests were carried
out in a 10 kN Instron machine equipped with a
temperature controlled chamber. The temperatures
545
R 60
150
60
20
10
Fig. 1. Tensile specimen dimensions (mm).
and strain rates chosen were, respectively, T ¼ 20,
50 and 80 1C and 1, 5 and 50 mm/min corresponding
to e_ ¼ 1:1
103 ; 5:6
103 and 5:6
102 s1 .
2.2. Damage analysis technique
The tensile test was made with acoustic emission
monitoring by the use of a Vallen AMSY 5 system.
Acoustic emission (AE) is elastic radiation gener-
ated by the rapid release of energy from sources
within a material. These elastic waves are detected
and converted to voltage signals by small piezo-
electric sensors mounted on a convenient surface of
the material. The result is that AE can be used to
monitor a structure for active damage even when
ambient noise levels are extremely high. Sources of
acoustic emission include in this case all types of
damage.
3. Results and discussions
In this section, the influence of an intrinsic
parameter (glass fibre content) and two extrinsic
parameters (strain rate e_ and temperature T) on the
three mechanical properties of tensile elastic mod-
ulus E, tensile strength sr and the failure strain er ,
has been investigated.
3.1. Glass fibre content effect
Fig. 2 shows stress–strain curves obtained for the
studied composites at T ¼ 20 1C and e_ ¼ 5:6

103 s1 . We can note the typical stress–strain
curves of reinforced materials showing high strength
levels and low deformation capabilities. Indeed,
glass fibre reinforced PA66 presents brittle beha-
viour with a failure strain of about 5.5%, whereas
unreinforced PA66 presents ductile behaviour with
a failure strain of about 25%. This figure also shows
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546 B. Mouhmid et al. / Polymer Testing 25 (2006) 544–552

180.0 2.80
50%
160.0 2.60
y = 1x2.8
140.0 2.40 R2 = 0.99
30%
120.0 2.20
15%
σ (MPa)

100.0 2.00

σr/σr0
80.0 1.80

60.0 0% 1.60

40.0 1.40

20.0 1.20

0.0 1.00
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5
ε (%) ρ/ρ0

Fig. 2. Stress–strain curves with different glass fibre ratios at Fig. 3. Variation of normalized tensile strength as a function of
20 1C and 5:6
103 s1 . relative density.

clearly that the increase in fibre content leads to an

increase in tensile strength and elastic modulus.
In order to explain these evolutions, the elastic 4.00
modulus and the tensile strength can be modelled
using a simple rearrangement of the rule of y = 1x3.7
3.50
mixture equations: E ¼ avf E f þ ð1  vf Þ E m and
R2 = 0.99
sr ¼ bvf srf þ ð1  vf Þ srm where E f ; srf are the
modulus and the tensile strength of the fibre 3.00
(E f ¼ 76 GPa and srf ¼ 3200 MPa) and E m ; srm
are, respectively, the experimental values of the
E /E0

2.50
modulus and the tensile strength of the unreinforced
PA66, vf is the fibre volume fraction and a and b are
the fibre orientation factors [8]. In our case, the 2.00
average values of a and b are: a ¼ 0:24 and
b ¼ 0:072, these values depend on the fibre length
1.50
and orientation.
The evolution of these two mechanical para-
meters can also be modelled using a phenomen- 1.00
ological description based upon the relative 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5
representations: normalized tensile strength sr =srm , ρ/ρ0
normalized elastic modulus E=E m versus relative
Fig. 4. Variation of normalized modulus as a function of relative
density r=r0 where r0 is the density of unreinforced
density.
PA66. Figs. 3 and 4 illustrate these evolutions and
show that they are described by power relationships
as follows:
expressions in a study about the mechanical
 2:8  3:7
sr r E r behaviour of expanded polystyrene.
¼ and ¼ , This observation is in good agreement with
srm r0 Em r0
literature data [10,11] and can be explained by the
with a good correlation coefficient: R2 ¼ 0:99 for contribution of the glass fibre as a brittle and tough
both formulas. Imad [9] has suggested similar material. The loss of ductility is confirmed by the
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B. Mouhmid et al. / Polymer Testing 25 (2006) 544–552
Fig. 5. (a) Ductile rupture. (b) Brittle fracture.
rupture specimen profile. In fact, the unreinforced
PA66 clearly develops a striction zone. Contra-
riwise, the glass fibre reinforced PA66 shows a
brittle fracture profile as shown in Figs. 5ab.
3.2. Strain rate effect
Fig. 6 illustrates the stress–strain curves obtained
from uniaxial tensile tests on unreinforced
PA66 specimens at room temperature (20 1C) with
the following strain rates: e_ ¼ 1:1
103 ; 5:6

103 and 5:6
102 s1 . These curves show that in
unreinforced PA66 the tensile strength increases
with the increase of strain rate, whereas the failure
strain drops, which means the material gets less
ductile. An explanation is that for high values of
strain rate, molecular rearrangement does not have
time to take place. This is in accordance with other
results in the specialized literature [12]. The strain
rate does not seem to have any significant effect on
the modulus in the range considered.
In glass fibre reinforced PA66, a typical stress–
strain curve is shown in Fig. 7. Elastic modulus and
tensile strength slightly increase as strain rate
increases. Contrariwise, the failure strain is not
affected by the strain rate in the range considered.
The tensile modulus and the tensile strength are
plotted against logarithms of strain rate in Figs. 8a
and b and can be modelled using a simple regression
547
90.0
70.0
Stress MPa
50.0
30.0 0.0011 1/s
0.0056 1/s
10.0 0.056 1/s
-10.00.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0
starin %
Fig. 6. Stress–strain curves of unreinforced PA66 for different
strain rates.
function defined by E ¼ aE lnð_eÞ þ bE and sr ¼
asr lnð_eÞ þ bsr for the different studied materials
[13,14]. Values of aE , bE , asr and bsr are given in
Table 1.
3.3. Temperature effect
In order to evaluate the effect of temperature on
the tensile properties of the glass fibre reinforced
PA66, the stress–strain curves were plotted. Typical
stress–strain curves at a constant strain rate of 5:6

103 s1 are shown in Fig. 9.
It is noted that the tensile behaviour of the
studied materials is strongly dependant on the
temperature. It can be seen that there is an obvious
region AC called the ‘‘toe region’’ as shown in
Fig. 10. The ‘‘toe region’’ does not represent a
material property but it is an artifact caused by the
take up of slack as observed, e.g., by Shi et al. [15].
The slope between the origin B and point D on
the elastic section in the stress–strain curve is taken
as the Young’s modulus according to ASTM
standard D882-97 [16].
The effect of temperature on the Young’s
modulus is shown in Fig. 11. We can see that the
normalized Young’s modulus decreases with the
testing temperature, following a nonlinear relation-
ship. The normalized tensile strength also decreases
with increasing temperature as shown in Fig. 12.
It can be noted that the failure strain increases as
the temperature is increased up to 80 1C for the 15%
(wt) short glass fibre reinforced PA66. Globally, the
effect of temperature on the failure strain is much
more accentuated in unreinforced PA66 than in
short glass fibre reinforced PA66, as shown in
Fig. 13.
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160.0
5mm/min
140.0
50mm/min
1mm/min
Stress (Mpa) 120.0

100.0

80.0

60.0

40.0

20.0

0.0
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0
Strain (%)

Fig. 7. Stress–strain curves of 30% glass fibre reinforced PA66 for different strain rates.

6000
5500
5000
Modulus (MPa)

4500 PA66 0%
4000
PA66 15%
3500
PA66 30%
3000
2500 PA66 50%
2000
1500
1000
-7.00 -6.00 -5.00 -4.00 -3.00 -2.00
(a) Ln (strain rate)

200

180

160
Tensile strength (MPa)

140

120

100

80

60
PA66 0%
PA66 15% 40
PA66 30%
20
PA66 50%
0
-7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2
(b) Ln (strain rate)

Fig. 8. (a) Variation of modulus as a function of ln ð_eÞ. (b) Variation of modulus as a function of ln ð_eÞ.
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B. Mouhmid et al. / Polymer Testing 25 (2006) 544–552 549

Table 1
Values of aE and bE for the different studied materials

0% SGFR PA66 15% SGFR PA66 30% SGFR PA66 50% SGFR PA66

aE 32.8 88.6 179.0 170.7

bE 2079.1 3609.6 4791.7 6320.0
asr 1.71 0.76 2.94 6.43
bsr 71.17 94.75 142.57 201.89

90
20°C
80 Relative modulus
50°C
70 80°C 0% GFR PA66
Stress (MPa)

2.00
60 15% GFR PA66
1.80
50 30% GFR PA66
1.60
40 1.40 50% GFR PA66
30 1.20

E/Em
20 1.00
10 0.80
0 0.60
0 2 4 6 8 10 0.40
0.20
Strain (%)
0.00
Fig. 9. Stress–strain curves of 15% glass fibre reinforced PA66 at 0 20 40 60 80 100
strain rate of 5:6
103 s1 at different temperatures. Temperature (°C)

30 Fig. 11. Normalized modulus versus temperature.

50°C
0% GFR PA66
25 15% GFR PA66
2.00
1.80 30% GFR PA66
20 1.60 50% GFR PA66
Stress (MPa)

D 1.40
1.20
σ/σm

15 1.00
0.80
0.60
10 0.40
0.20
0.00
5 0 20 40 60 80 100
C Temperature (°C)

0 B Fig. 12. Normalized tensile strength versus temperature.

A 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 1.5
Strain (%)
PA66 at room temperature. AE may have several
physical causes: crack initiation and propagation,
Fig. 10. Stress–strain curves of 15% glass fibre reinforced PA66
at strain rate of 5:6
103 s1 at 50 1C.
fibre/matrix interface and fiber failure. The number
of AE events characterizes the global damage
mechanism of the sample. It is possible to correlate
4. Damage mechanisms each range of amplitude to a damage mechanism
type. Many authors have already worked on this
4.1. Acoustic emission subject. Barré and Benzeggag [17,18], testing glass
fibre reinforced polypropylene samples, reported
The AE technique has been used to detect that the acoustic signal varies with the correspond-
different damage stages in glass fibre reinforced ing damage mode: AE amplitude range from 40 to
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70

60

50
Failure strain (%)

40
PA00
PA15
30
PA30
PA50
20

10

0
20 40 60 80 100
Temperature (T°C)

Fig. 13. Effect of temperature on the failure strain.

55 dB corresponds to matrix cracking, 60–65 dB to

debonding, 65–85 dB to pull-out and 85–95 dB to
fibre fracture.
Figs. 14a and b illustrate AE results of 15% (wt)
glass fibre reinforced PA66: force, counts and
amplitude versus time.
These curves highlight three main damage process
Fig. 14. Acoustic emission results of a 15% glass fibre reinforced
stages of the composite: PA66: (a) number of events and (b) amplitudes.

(1) An elastic zone with an insignificant acoustic

activity (zone A).
(2) A second zone corresponding to the nonlinear
behaviour controlled by matrix plasticity and
microcracks (zone B: amplitude between 40 and
60 dB). The beginning of this zone corresponds
to the yield stress.
(3) A last zone, C, of important damage represented
by consequent AE activity preceding rupture.

These interpretations are consolidated by other

results [19–21].

4.2. Scanning electron microscopy

For more comprehension of rupture mechanisms,
fracture surfaces have been observed by SEM.
Fig. 15 is a fracture surface photography of an
unreinforced PA66 showing craters. Cavitations
could have occurred and produced crazing. Crazing
could also have occurred near initial voids or an
existing defect that took place during moulding.
However, the presence of spherolites, that are
Fig. 15. Unreinforced PA66 failure facies.
crystalline defects, is the most probable hypothesis.
Craze propagation led then to cracks. This stage
relates to the ductile behaviour of unreinforced
PA66. Once the crack is created, it weakens the
material and primes the brittle rupture of the
remaining ligament.
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Fig. 16. Fracture surface of a 50% (wt) short glass fibre
reinforced PA66 showing a predominant orientation of the fibres.
Fig. 17. A 15% glass fibre reinforced PA66 failure surface.
Fig. 16 indicates predominant orientation of the
fibres parallel to the flow direction in a random area
of 50% (wt) short glass fibre reinforced PA66
specimen. Fig. 17 shows the fracture surface of the
15% glass fibre reinforced PA66. For this specimen,
the fracture surface is rough and most of the fibres
are oriented in the loading direction. This fracture
surface is featured by some holes due to the
pulled out fibres and the protuding fibres on the
fracture surface. The same remarks can be made
about reinforced PA66 with other short glass fibre
contents.
5. Conclusions
In this paper, the effects of strain rate, tempera-
ture and glass fibre content have been investigated.
Glass fibre addition in PA66 results in loss of
ductility and increased stiffness: increasing glass
551
fibre percentage leads to higher values of tensile
strength and modulus, and lower values of failure
strain.
Strain rate, in the studied range, has a less
significant effect on glass fibre reinforced PA66
behaviour than on the unreinforced PA66. In
unreinforced PA66, the strain rate increase results
in a higher yield stress and a lower failure strain.
Temperature plays a predominant role in the
material behaviour, temperature increase leads to
more ductility and less stiffness.
AE testing is a powerful method for online
detection and analysis of matrix, fibre and interface
related active fracture processes in composite
materials. A number of tools for identification and
evaluation of damage stages and failure mechanisms
exist. They are based on changes in AE activity or
intensity features. Stress waves emitted by fibre
breaks cause much higher AE amplitudes than other
mechanisms, such as matrix cracking.
SEM and AE analysis allowed working out the
damage process and chronology. Unreinforced
PA66 develops crazing followed by rupture of the
remaining ligament. In short glass fibre reinforced
PA66, fibre-matrix interface rupture is observed. In
30% (wt) and 50% (wt) glass fibre reinforced PA66,
the damage is characterized by matrix plastication
and microcracks, fibre pull out and fracture.
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