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)

1
fibre volume fraction

0.8
glass
0.6
HS carbon
0.4
aramid
0.2

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
fibre weight fraction
 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’ 0.6

woven fabric 0.4 - 0.55
random
(chopped strand mat) 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/m2 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 If the fibre content and

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

nAw nAw
Vf  d
f d fVf
 Ply thickness vs fibre volume fraction (glass)

3
Area weight
2.5
ply thickness (mm)

2 200 g/m2
300 g/m2
1.5
450 g/m2
1 600 g/m2
0.5
0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
fibre volume fraction
 Ply thickness vs fibre volume fraction (HS carbon)

1.6
Area weight
1.4
ply thickness (mm)

1.2 100 g/m2

1 150 g/m2
0.8 200 g/m2
0.6 300 g/m2
0.4 500 g/m2
0.2
0
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
fibre volume fraction
Example calculations

1. What will be the thickness of a laminate

consisting of 2 layers of 450 g/m2 chopped
strand mat if a resin to glass ratio (by weight)
of 2:1 is used?

2. What fibre volume fraction is achieved if

3 layers of 800 g/m2 glass woven roving are
compression-moulded to a thickness of
2 mm?
 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  Vmm

  Vf f  (1  Vf )m

  Vf (f  m )  m

since Vf + Vm = 1
 Rule of mixtures density for
glass/epoxy composites
3000

2500 f
2000
kg/m 3

1500

1000
m
500

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
fibre volume fraction
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 V f
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:

o
unidirectional 1.0
biaxial 0.5
biaxial at 45o 0.25
random (in-plane) 0.375
random (3D) 0.2
 Rule of mixtures tensile modulus
(glass fibre/polyester)

60
tensile modulus (GPa)

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)

150
UD
100 biaxial
quasi-isotropic
50

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
fibre volume fraction
 Rule of mixtures elastic modulus
glass fibre / epoxy resin

60
50
40
UD
GPa

30 biaxial
20 random

10
0
0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7
fibre volume fraction
 Rule of mixtures elastic modulus
HS carbon / epoxy resin

180
160
140
120 UD
100 biaxial UD
GPa

80 quasi-isotropic UD
60 plain woven
40
20
0
0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
fibre volume fraction