Nonlinear creep behaviour of glass fiber reinforced polypropylene: Impact of aging on stiffness degradation

Nonlinear creep behavior of one commercial short glass fiber reinforced polypropylene was investigated using tensile creep tests and stiffness degradation measurements. The impact of thermal aging and following quenching was evaluated on the latter mechanical property. Experimental results were modeled applying nonlinear viscoelastic model used by Pupure et al. (2013) and developed by Lou and Schapery [1,2]. Results showed that this model can describe nonlinear behavior of short glass fiber reinforced polymer composites, where microdamage is given by debonding of fiber-matrix interfaces already at low strains, where cracks propagate and lead to tensile creep fracture