Composites Science and Technology 58 (1998) 1961±1972
# 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
PII: S0266-3538(98)00033-5
AN ANALYTICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE
ANISOTROPY OF THE ELASTIC MODULUS OF MISALIGNED
SHORT-FIBER-REINFORCED POLYMERS
Shao-Yun Fu* & Bernd Lauke
Institute of Polymer Research Dresden e.V., Hohe Strasse 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany
(Received 10 August 1997; revised 16 December 1997; accepted 6 February 1998)
Abstract
Short-®ber-reinforced polymers (SFRP) are very attrac-
tive because of their ease of fabrication, relatively low
cost and mechanical properties which are superior to
those of relevant polymer resins. Owing to the partial
orientation distribution of the ®bers in ®nal components,
SFRP composites show direction-dependence, namely
anisotropy in their mechanical properties. The ®ber-
length distribution (FLD) and the ®ber-orientation dis-
tribution (FOD) in SFRP composites play an important
role in determining the composite mechanical properties.
In the present paper, the FLD and the FOD are modelled
with suitable probability density functions and the lami-
nate analogy approach is used to derive the expression of
the elastic modulus of SFRP as a function of any given
direction, the FLD and the FOD. The direction-depen-
dence, i.e. the anisotropy, of the elastic modulus of SFRP
has been studied in detail by taking into consideration the
e€ects of the FLD and the FOD. The present theory is
applied to existing experimental results, and the agree-
ment is found to be very satisfactory. # 1998 Elsevier
Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Keywords: A. short-®ber composites, ®bre-length dis-
tribution, ®bre-orientation distribution, anisotropy of
elastic modulus
1 INTRODUCTION
Short-®ber-reinforced polymers (SFRP) are very attrac-
tive because of their ease of fabrication, relatively low
cost and mechanical properties which are superior to
those of relevant polymer resins. SFRP are often fabri-
cated by the rapid, low-cost injection molding process,
and hence there are in general a ®ber-length distribution
*To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Advanced
Materials Research Center, School of Applied Science,
Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singa-
pore 639798. Fax: 0065 792 6559; e-mail: assyfu@ntu.edu.sg
1961
Printed in Great Britain
0266-3538/98 $Ðsee front matter
(FLD) and a ®ber-orientation distribution (FOD) in
®nal components which are the important factors in
determining the mechanical properties of SFRP. The
e€ects of the FLD and the FOD on mechanical prop-
erties such as strength and sti€ness of SFRP in the
mold-¯ow direction have been studied by numerous
researchers.1±14
Owing to the partial ®ber orientation, short-®bre
composites will demonstrate, more or less anisotropy in
their mechanical properties. This inevitability of aniso-
tropy in the mechanical properties of short-®bre-rein-
forced composites can lead to severe deterioration in the
total performance of the composites when their unfa-
vorable direction is highly loaded or under attack by the
environment. Recently, theoretical studies on the elastic
anisotropy of short-®ber composites have been receiving
an increasing interest.15±19 Warner and Stobbs15 pro-
posed a continuum-mechanics model based on the
Eshelby method to predict the variation in the elastic
modulus of short-®ber composites with loading direc-
tion. They studied a model system consisting of a ®nite
volume fraction of ®bers, which are all of the same
aspect ratio (i.e. the same ®ber length) and in the same
direction, and the e€ects of the ®ber aspect ratio and the
®ber volume fraction on the variation in the elastic
modulus of short-®ber composites as a function of the
loading direction were investigated. Dyer et al.16 also
used the Eshelby method to develop a theoretical
method of calculating bounds on the elastic constants
for unidirectional ®ber-reinforced composites by con-
sidering that the ®bers and the matrix both show trans-
verse isotropy. Sayer17 carried out a theoretical analysis
on the elastic anisotropy of short-®ber-reinforced com-
posites with ®bers of the same length by examing the
sensitivity of the elastic sti€ness tensor to the ®ber
orientation. Pan18 presented a statistical analysis to
characterize the modulus anisotropy of short-®ber
composites and studied the e€ect of the ®ber volume
fraction on the anisotropy of the elastic modulus by
considering one planar and harmonic ®ber orientation
distribution. Dunn et al.19 proposed a relatively simple
1962 S.-Y. Fu, B. Lauke
micromechanics model to predict the entire set of elastic
constants of short-®ber composites for advancing the
understanding of the dependence of the anisotropical
elastic sti€ness tensor on microstructure, including ®ber
concentration, shape (aspect ratio) and orientation dis-
tribution. The analytical results were given for some
special orientation distributions such as unidirectional,
two-dimensional (2D) random and three-dimensional
(3D) random ®ber alignment.
However, in the above studies and in all the literature
that we have examined, no detailed study of the e€ects
of the FLD and the FOD on the direction-dependence
of the elastic modulus of short-®ber composites, i.e. the
anisotropy of the elastic modulus of short-®ber compo-
sites, has been carried out to date. As a part of our
research project, an analytical characterization of the
anisotropy of the elastic modulus of SFRP will be pre-
sented in this paper. As was done in our previous
paper,7 the FLD and the FOD are modeled by suitable
probability density functions and the laminate analogy
approach will be used to derive the expression of the
elastic modulus of SFRP as a function of the given
direction (which may be the loading direction or that in
which the elastic modulus of SFRP is to be measured)
and the FLD and the FOD. The e€ects of the FLD and
the FOD on the variation in the elastic modulus of
SFRP with the direction, namely the anisotropy of the
elastic modulus, will be studied in detail in the present
study. Finally, the theoretical results predicted by the
present theory are compared with existing experimental
results.8,20
2 THEORY
2.1 Fiber-length distribution
The FLD fucntion f (`) has been de®ned pre-
viously,6,7,21,22 and it can be expressed as follows:
f …`† ˆ a b `bÿ1 exp…ÿa `b † for ` > 0 …
where a and b are scale and shape parameters, respec-
tively, and f (`) d` refers to the probability density that
the length of ®ber is between ` and `+d`. From eqn (1)
we can get the mean ®ber length (i.e. the number aver-
age ®ber length)
1
`mean ˆ `f …`†d` ˆ aÿ1=b ÿ…1=b ‡ 1† …
0
where ÿ(x) is the gamma function. The most probable
length (mode length), `mod, can be obtained by di€er-
entiating eqn (1) and letting the resultant equation be
equal to zero
`mod ˆ ‰1=a ÿ 1=…ab†Š1=b …
2.2 Fiber orientation distribution
In order to describe the FOD, we adopt a spatial curvi-
linear coordinate system where the orientation of a ®ber
in the composite can be de®ned uniquely by a pair of
angles (,) (see Fig. 1).  is de®ned as the angle a ®ber
makes with the 1 axis (the 1 axis direction may be
assumed to be the mold-¯ow direction or the normal
direction of a plane on which the ®ber orientation dis-
tribution will be measured), while  is de®ned as the angle
the projection of the ®ber on to the 2±3 plane (the 2±3
plane is the one whose normal is parallel to the 1-axis
direction) makes with the 2 axis. Provided  is the angle of
one end of the ®ber with the 1 axis, then ÿ is the angle
of the other end of the ®ber with the 1 axis; similarly, 
and + are the two angles of the projection of the two
®ber ends on to the 2±3 plane with the 2 axis, respectively.
A two-parameter exponential function to describe the
FOD g() was proposed previously,6,7,21 and the FOD
function can be given as follows
…sin †2pÿ1 …cos †2qÿ1
g…† ˆ 
max„
…sin †2pÿ1 …cos †2qÿ1 d …4†
min
for 0  min    max  =2
where p and q are the shape parameters which can be
used to determine the shape of the distribution curves,
and p1/2 and q1/2. g()d is the probability density
that the orientation of ®bers is between  and +d. It
has been demonstrated that eqn (4) is a suitable prob-
ability density function for describing the FOD g().6,21
The mean ®ber orientation angle, mean, can be derived
from eqn (4) as
max
mean ˆ g…† d …5†
min
1†
2†
Fig. 1. De®nitions of the ®ber orientation angles and the
(loading) direction angles  and  (the direction (,) may
be the loading direction or that in which the composite mod-
3† ulus will be measured).
 Elastic modulus of misaligned short-®ber-reinforced polymers 1963

Di€erentiating eqn (4) and letting the resultant equation of angles  and +d,  and +d is given by
be zero, we can get g(,)d
, where d
is the in®nitesimal solid angle and

mod ˆ arctanf‰…2p ÿ 1†=…2q ÿ 1†Š1=2 g …6† d

ˆ sin  d d …10†

Equation (6) represents the most probable ®ber orien-
tation angle (mode ®ber angle). The ®ber orientation
coecient, f, can be de®ned as follows6,7,14,21,23
max
f ˆ 2 g…† cos2  d ÿ 1 …
min
For f=ÿ1, all ®bers lie perpendicular to the normal
direction of the 2±3 plane; f=0 corresponds to a 2D
random distribution or a symmetric distribution about
The probability density distribution must satisfy two
physical conditions.24 First, one end of the ®ber is
indistinguishable from the other end, so  and  must be
periodic:
g…; † ˆ g… ÿ ;  ‡ † …11†
7†
Second, every ®ber must have a pair of orientation
angles  and , so the integral over all possible direc-
tions or the orientation space must be equal to unity:
… …
max max

the direction =/4; f=1 implies that all ®bers are g…; † sin  d d ˆ 1 …12†
aligned parallel to the 1-axis direction. min min
The cumulative distribution function of ®ber orienta-
tion () is then given by
where 0minmax and 0minmax2.
… Since the probability of ®nding a ®ber in the in®nite-
G…† ˆ g…† d simal ranges of angles between  and +d and between
min  and +d is either equal to g(,)d
or equal to
… …
max g()g()d d, then we can get
2pÿ1 2qÿ1
ˆ …sin † …cos † d= …sin †2pÿ1 …cos †2qÿ1 d
g…; † ˆ g…†g…†= sin  …13†
min min

…8† Finally, the expression for g(,) can be obtained from

g() and g(). It can be easily veri®ed that the orienta-
G() is the cumulative percentage of the ®bers whose tion distribution function g(,) satis®es its periodic
orientation varies from min to . condition (eqn (11)) and its normalization condition
Equation (4) is the FOD function for  in the range of (eqn (12)). Thus, the function g(,) deduced from g()
0 to /2, then that equivalent to eqn (4) in the range of and g() should also be a proper probability density for
from 0 to  can be easily obtained by replacing cos  a function pair of orientation angles (,).
with j cos j, where jj denotes the absolute value sign, Xia et al.2 also gave the formulae for the FOD
since the value of cos  would be negative when  is functions g() and g() in the ranges of 0 to  for both
greater than /2.  and :
Similarly to the de®nition of g(), we can de®ne an 0 0
orientation probability density function g() for the ‰sin…=2†Š2p ÿ1 ‰cos…=2†Š2q ÿ1
g…† ˆ …14†
®ber orientation angle in the range of 0 to 2 as follows „
max
2p0 ÿ1 2q0 ÿ1
‰sin …=2†Š ‰cos …=2†Š d
min
j sin j2sÿ1 j cos j2tÿ1
g…† ˆ 
„max 0 0
j sin j2sÿ1 j cos j2tÿ1 d …9† ‰sin …=2†Š2s ÿ1 ‰cos …=2†Š2t ÿ1
min
g…† ˆ „max
…15†
2s0 ÿ1 2t0
for 0  min    max  2 2‰sin…=2†Š ‰cos…=2†Š d
min

where s and t are shape parameters which determine the
shape of the curves of FOD g(). And g()d is the
probability density that the orientation of ®ber lies
between  and +d.
The probability density function for a pair of orien-
tation angles (,), also known as the orientation dis-
tribution function g(,), is de®ned so that the
probability of the ®ber lying in the in®nitesimal ranges
However, as stated above the FOD functions should
satisfy the periodic condition and the normalization
condition, then p0 must be equal to q0 , and s0 must be
equal to t0 . It can be noted from Xia et al.2 that in fact
that their experimental results demonstrated this. And
the orientation distribution functions (eqns (14) and
(15)) de®ned by Xia et al.2 when p0 =q0 and s0 =t0 can be
easily seen to be our special cases.
1964 S.-Y. Fu, B. Lauke

2.3 Elastic modulus of SFRP in the direction (,)
Consider a single misaligned ®ber of a length ` and a
pair of orientation angles (,) as de®ned in Fig. 1. For
a given direction (,) (see Fig. 1), which may be the
loading direction (or that in which the elastic modulus
The transformed sti€ness constants, Q0 ij, are inte-
grated through the thickness of the laminate to obtain
the overall laminate sti€ness matrix, A ij
X
M

of SFRP is to be measured), we can get the angle  A ij ˆ Q0ij hk …18†

kˆ1
between the ®ber axial direction (,) and the given
direction (,) from the following equation
where M represents the number of plies in the laminate,
cos  ˆ cos  cos  ‡ sin  sin  cos… ÿ † …16† k is the serial index of the ply in the laminate, and hk is
the thickness fraction of the kth ply. Since the composite
In a similar way to the derivation for the composite has a continuous FOD and a continuous FLD then, as
elastic modulus in the mold-¯ow direction (=0,) described above, the kth ply can be considered to con-
(namely the 1-axis direction in Fig. 1),7 we can easily tain the ®bers of length between ` and `+d` and a pair
derive the expression for the composite elastic modulus of orientation angles between  and +d and between
in any given direction (,). The SFRP composite is  and +d. Thus, the summation in eqn (18) must be
simulated by a laminate and is assumed to be a stack of replaced by the corresponding integral:
plies, as in our previous paper, in deriving the expres-
sion for the elastic modulus of SFRP in the direction … max
`max … …max
(=0,).7 The ®bers of length between ` and `+d` A ij ˆ Q0ij f …`†g…†g…† d` d d …19†
and a pair of orientation angles between  and +d
`min min min
and between  and +d are supposed to be included
in the same ply. First, the sti€ness constants for each ply
are given with the laminate theory. Second, the sti€ness And m (=cos ) and n (=sin ) in eqn (17) can be
constants for each ply are integrated through the thick- transformed with eqn (16) into the functions containing
ness of the laminate to obtain the overall sti€ness con-  and . Finally, we can get the elastic modulus of
stants of the simulated laminate. Third, the elastic SFRP in the direction (,):
modulus of SFRP can be obtained from the relation
between the sti€ness constants and the elastic modulus A 11 A 22 ÿ A 212
of the laminate. Ec …; † ˆ …20†
A 22
The transformation equation for a uniaxial ply
between the components of sti€ness matrix in the on-
axis system and that in the o€-axis system can be given In the next section, the variation in the elastic modulus
by25 of SFRP in the direction (,), Ec(, ), with the
direction (,) (namely the anisotropy of the composite
8 0 9 8 4 9
> Q11 > > m n4 2m2 n2 4m2 n2 > elastic modulus) will be discussed in detail by taking
>
> >
> > > >
>
>
> Q022 >
> >
> n4 m4 2m2 n2 4m2 n2 >
> into account the e€ects of the FLD and the FOD.
>
> >
> >
> >
>
> > >
< Q0 = < m2 n2 >
=
12 m 2 n2 m 4 ‡ n4 ÿ4m2 n2
ˆ
>
> Q 0 >
66 >
>
> m 2 n2 m 2 n2 ÿ2m2 n2 …m2 ÿ n2 †2 >> 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
>
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> Q16 >
0 >
> > >
> m3 n ÿmn3 mn3 ÿ m3 n 2…mn3 ÿ m3 n† >>
>
> >
: 0 > ; > : >
; Since  and ÿ are the two angles of the two ends of a
Q26 mn3 ÿm3 n m3 n ÿ mn3 3
2…m n ÿ mn † 3
8 9 ®ber with respect to the 1 axis (see Fig. 1), we will only
> Q11 >
>
> > consider  in the range of 0 to /2 and then the FOD
<Q > =
22 function g() (eqn (4)) in the angle range of 0 to /2 will
> Q12 >
> > be used. The elastic modulus of SFRP in the direction
>
: >
;
Q66 range (0/2, 02) will be evaluated in this
study, and the modulus in the other direction range (/
…17†
2, 02) can be obtained by the mirror sym-
metry, owing to the fact that the two ends of a ®ber are
where m=cos  and n=sin . Note that here the de®ni- indistinguishable, and thus the modulus of SFRP in the
tions of m and n are di€erent from those (m=cos  and direction (,) should be equal to that in the direction
n=sin ) in the direction (=0,),7 because the angle (ÿ,+).
between the ®ber axial direction (,) and the direction The following data of the parameters are used
(,) is now equal to . {Qij} (i, j=1, 2, 6) is the sti€- throughout the paper, unless noted specially:
ness matrix in the on-axis system and Qij have been Ef=82.7 GPa, Gf=27.6 GPa, f=0.22, Em=2.18 GPa,
de®ned in our previous work;7 {Q0 ij} (i, j=1, 2, 6) is the Gm=1.03 GPa, m=0.35, Vf=0.20, df=10 m,
sti€ness matrix in the o€-axis system. `mean=3 198 mm (a=0 15 and b=1.5) and mean=9.46
. .
 Elastic modulus of misaligned short-®ber-reinforced polymers 1965

(p=0.6 and q=15). And g()=1/(2) (s=t=0.5,

02) is considered at ®rst. Since g() here is a con-
stant, the material property such as modulus would be
independent of the direction angle , this will be shown
in Figs 2±4 and 6±8.
The predicted elastic modulus of SFRP as a function
of both the direction angle  and the ®ber volume
fraction Vf is shown in Fig. 2 for the unidirectional ®ber
alignment case (i.e. p=0.5, q=1 and mean=0 ), where
the direction angle  is of any value. Figure 2 exhibits
that the elastic modulus of SFRP varies with the direc-
tion angle  and the ®ber volume fraction. The elastic
modulus of SFRP possesses the maximum value at
=0 because in this direction where all ®bers are
oriented, the modulus decreases with the increase in 
and approaches an approximate plateau for about
50 ; nonetheless, the data in Fig. 2 demonstrate that Fig. 3. The e€ect of the mean ®ber orientation angle mean on
there is a minimum in the modulus at =about 80 for the variation in the composite elastic modulus with the direc-
Vf=0.1, at =about 70 for Vf=0.2 and 0.3, and at tion angle  for any value of .
=about 60 for Vf=0.4 and 0.5 (very slightly lower
than that at =90 ). This phenomenon was also oriented in this direction (when mean=57.32 , the ®bers
observed in Warner and Stobbs.15 Obviously, a higher are oriented randomly without any preferred direction
Vf value in the composite will result in a greater com- and, thus, it is observed that the composite is isotropic
posite modulus. Moreover, since the results in Fig. 2 are in the modulus). Moreover, the composite modulus is
obtained for any value of , the modulus is unrelated to independent of the direction angle  because of
the direction angle  since g() is a constant. g()=1/(2), this has been observed in Fig. 2 for the
Figure 3 depicts the elastic modulus of SFRP as a unidirectional ®ber-alignment case and will also be
function of the direction angle  and the mean ®ber observed in Figs 4 and 6±8 but will not be restated.
orientation angle mean for any value of . It is shown in Figure 4 shows the e€ects of the mode ®ber orienta-
Fig. 3 that the composite modulus at a small  (e.g. tion angle mod and the ®ber orientation coecient f on
about 30 ) decreases dramatically with the increase in the variation in the elastic modulus of SFRP with the
the mean ®ber orientation angle mean while the mod- direction angle , where mean=32.7 (p=0.5 and
ulus at a large  (e.g. about 50 ) increases relatively q=1.0, p=0.75 and q=1.57 as well as p=4.0 and
slowly with the increase in mean. For the limit case of q=9.39, respectively). It can be seen from Fig. 4 that the
the 3D random ®ber alignment (see curve (g)) the com- mode ®ber orientation angle and the ®ber orientation
posite modulus maintains a constant for various , and coecient have an evident in¯uence on the variation in
thus the composite is isotropic in the modulus. In addi- the elastic modulus of SFRP with the direction angle .
tion, the composite modulus at =0 is the maximum,
since the ®bers when mean<57.32 are preferentially

Fig. 4. The e€ects of mod and f for mean=32.7 on the var-

Fig. 2. The composite elastic modulus versus the direction iation in the composite elastic modulus with the direction
angle  for various ®ber volume fractions and any value of . angle  for any value of .
1966 S.-Y. Fu, B. Lauke
When  is small (e.g. about 28 ) or large (about
68 ), a smaller mode ®ber orientation angle or smaller
®ber orientation coecient corresponds to a larger
elastic modulus; however, when  is medium (about
28 about 68 ), a smaller mode ®ber orientation
angle or smaller ®ber orientation coecient corresponds
to a smaller elastic modulus.
For the special case of mean=45 and f=0, the e€ect
of the cumulative FOD (see Fig. 5) on the variation in
the elastic modulus with the direction angle  is shown
in Fig. 6. It reveals that a higher cumulative percentage
G() at some angle  (0 <<45 ) (see Fig. 5) corre-
sponds to a higher modulus at about 30 or at
about 70 , while conversely to a lower modulus
when 30 70 (see Fig. 6).
The variation in the composite modulus with the
direction angle  is shown in Fig. 7 for various mean
®ber lengths: 6.667 mm (a=0.15 and b=1.0), 3.198 mm
(a=0.15 and b=1.5), 1.096 mm (a=0.15 and b=15),
Fig. 5. The cumulative ®bre orientation distribution curves
for: (1) p=q=0.5; (2) p=q=1; (3) p=q=2.
Fig. 6. The e€ect of the cumulative ®ber orientation distribu-
tion G() on the variation in the composite elastic modulus
with the direction angle  for any value of .
0.782 mm (a=5 and b=8.5), 0.466 (a=5 and b=2.5)
and 0.200 mm (a=5 and b=1.0). Figure 7 reveals that
when the mean ®ber length is relatively small (e.g.
<about 1 mm, i.e. the ®ber aspect ratio is <about 100),
a larger mean ®ber length leads to a higher composite
modulus at 60 , and the di€erence in the composite
modulus between two cases of di€erent mean ®ber
lengths decreases as  increases, while when  is com-
paratively large (60 ), the modulus is insensitive to the
mean ®ber length. Moreover, the in¯uence of the mean
®ber length on the modulus weakens as the mean ®ber
length increases. Furthermore, when the mean ®ber
length is comparatively large, the mean ®ber length has
hardly any in¯uence on the modulus of SFRP.
The e€ect of the mode ®ber length on the variation
in the elastic modulus of SFRP with the direction
angle  is depicted in Fig. 8 for the two cases of
`mean=3.198 mm (a=0.3127 and b=1.0, a=0.15 and
b=1.5, as well as a=0.0406 and b=2.5, respectively)
and `mean=0.309 mm (a=3.239 and b=1.0, a=5.0 and
b=1.5, as well as a=14.0 and b=2.5, respectively).
Figure 8 shows that larger mode ®ber lengths lead to a
Fig. 7. The e€ect of the mean ®ber length `mean on the varia-
tion in the composite elastic modulus with the direction angle
 for any value of .
Fig. 8. The e€ect of the mode ®ber length `mode on the varia-
tion in the composite elastic modulus with the direction angle
 for any value of .
 Elastic modulus of misaligned short-®ber-reinforced polymers
higher elastic modulus at <about 60 , while when
about 60 , the modulus is insensitive to both the
mean ®ber length and the mode ®ber length.
For the case of g()=1/(2), the e€ects of the FLD
and the FOD on the variation in the modulus with the
direction angle  have been studied above. Another
important case, namely the planar FOD,2,3,20 will be
studied below; for this case g() and its integration
should be eliminated from eqn (19). The results for the
latter case will be presented below.
Figure 9 shows the e€ect of the ®ber volume fraction
on the variation in the modulus of SFRP with the
direction (,) (the modulus for 90 180 is not
given in the ®gure, since it can be obtained from that for
0 90 because the modulus is symmetric about
=90 for the planar FOD case, which will be shown
in Fig. 10). Figure 9 reveals that the composite modulus
varies also with  as well as  and Vf. Obviously, a
higher Vf leads to a higher modulus. Moreover, Fig. 9
exhibts that the modulus is maximum when =0 and
minimum when =90 except at =0 and 90 .
Figure 10 shows the variation in the elastic modulus
of SFRP with the direction (,) for various mean,
namely (a) mean=0 (p=0.5 and q=1), (b)
mean=12.95 (p=0.6 and q=8), (c) mean=35.95
(p=0.6 and q=1) and (d) mean=45 (p=0.5 and
q=0.5). Figure 10 exhibts the signi®cant in¯uence of the
mean ®ber orientation angle mean on the variation in
the elastic modulus of SFRP with the direction (,).
Comparison of Fig. 10(a)±(d) reveals that the elastic
modulus increases with the decrease in the mean ®ber
orientation angle mean when the direction angle  is
small while, when the direction angle  is large, the
modulus decreases to some extent with the decrease in
the mean ®ber orientation angle mean. At =90 , for
the cases of a small mean ®ber orientation angle mean,
the composite modulus hardly varies with  (see
Fig. 10(a) and (b)), while for the cases of large mean
®ber orientation angle, the modulus decreases with  to
its minimum at =90 and afterwards increases with 
Fig. 9. The e€ect of the ®ber volume fraction on the variation
in the composite elastic modulus with the direction (,).
1967
to its maximum at =180 . Moreover, for the cases of
mean6ˆ0, it can be seen from Fig. 10 (b)±(d) that when 
is small (e.g. as shown in Fig. 10 (c), 0 about 70 )
or large (e.g. in Fig. 10(c), about 110 180 ), the
modulus increases with  to a peak value and then
decreases with  until the minimum value at =90 ,
whereas for about 70 <<about 110 , the composite
modulus decreases with  to its minimum at some cer-
tain  of a value within the range of 60 to 80 and then
slightly increases as  increases. Furthermore, Fig. 10
demonstrates that the variation in the elastic modulus of
SFRP with the direction (,) is symmetric about the
direction angle =90 .
Since the modulus is symmetric about =90 and the
modulus is maximum when =0 and minimum when
=90 when considered in the range of 0 to 90 , and
varies continuously with , for simplicity and without
loss of generality we will only evaluate the modulus at
=0 and =90 in the following.
The variation in the modulus of SFRP with the
direction angle  for =0 and 90 is shown in Fig. 11
for various mode ®ber orientation angles mod and ®ber
orientation coecient f (mean=32.7 ), namely
mod=0 (p=0.5 and q=1.0), mod=13.2 (p=0.75 and
q=1.57) and mod=21.5 (p=4.0 and q=9.39). Figure
11 reveals that the mode ®ber orientation angle mod
and ®ber orientation coecient f have an evident
in¯uence on the modulus variance of SFRP with the
direction angle . At =0 , a smaller mode ®ber
orientation angle or a smaller ®ber orientation coe-
cient f corresponds to a higher modulus for
0 about 10 or about 60 90 while for about
10 about 60 , a larger mode ®ber orientation angle
or a larger ®ber orientation coecient f corresponds to
a higher modulus. At =90 , a smaller mode ®ber
orientation angle or a smaller ®ber orientation coe-
cient f corresponds to a higher modulus for about
60 , while when about 60 , the modulus is insensi-
tive to the mode ®ber orientation angle and ®ber orien-
tation coecient.
Figure 12 exhibits the e€ect of the cumulative FOD
on the variation in the modulus of SFRP with the
direction angle  for =0 and 90 , where mean=45 .
It is shown in Fig. 12 that the cumulative FOD (see
Fig. 5) also has an evident in¯uence on the variation in
the composite modulus with the direction angles  and
. When =0 , a lower cumulative percentage (higher
p and q) at some orientation angle  smaller than 45
(i.e. 0 <<45 , as shown in Fig. 5) corresponds to a
higher modulus for about 18 about 72 , while for
about 18 or about 72 , a higher cumulative
percentage (lower p and q) corresponds to a higher
modulus. When =90 , a higher cumulative percentage
at <45 corresponds to a higher modulus for
about 60 , while for about 60 the modulus is
independent of the cumulative percentage. Moreover, it
is shown in Fig. 12 that when =0 , the modulus is the
maximum at =45 and is symmetric about =45 .
1968 S.-Y. Fu, B. Lauke

Fig. 10. The composite elastic modulus versus the direction (,) for various mean ®ber orientation angle mean: (a) mean=0 , (b)
mean=12.95 , (c) mean=35.95 and (d) mean=45 .

Fig. 11. The e€ects of mod and f for mean=32.7 on the Fig. 12. The e€ect of the cumulative ®ber orientation dis-
variation in the composite elastic modulus with the direction tribution G() on the variation in the composite elastic mod-
angle  for =0 and 90 . ulus with the direction angle  for =0 and 90 .

Figure 13 shows the e€ect of the mean ®ber length on
the elastic modulus of SFRP as a function of the direc-
tion angles  and , where Vf=0.40 and mean=35.95
(p=0.6 and q=1). Figure 13 exhibits that when the
mean ®ber length is small, a larger mean ®ber length
leads to a higher elastic modulus for <about 80
while for about 80 the modulus is nearly insensitive
to the mean ®ber length. As the mean ®ber length
increases, the sensitivity of the modulus to the mean
®ber length decreases, and the mean ®ber length has
 Elastic modulus of misaligned short-®ber-reinforced polymers
Fig. 13. The e€ect of the mean ®ber length on the variation of
the composite elastic modulus with the direction angle  for
=0 and 90 .
hardly any in¯uence on the modulus of SFRP when
`mean is large (e.g. about 1 mm).
Figure 14 shows the e€ect of the mode ®ber length on
the variation in the composite modulus with the direc-
tion angle  for =0 and 90 . It is exhibited in Fig. 14
that a larger mode ®ber length leads to a higher mod-
ulus when  is small (e.g. about 50 for =0 and
about 30 for =90 ), whereas when  is large (e.g.
>about 50 for =0 and >about 30 for =90 ) the
mode ®ber length has hardly any in¯uence on the mod-
ulus of SFRP.
The e€ects of the FOD g() and the FLD f(`) on
the anisotropy of the modulus of SFRP have been
studied above for the two important cases of the
uniform random ®ber distribution for  (i.e. g()=1/
(2)) and of the planar FOD. Now we study the
e€ect of the FOD g() on the modulus. The follow-
ing three FODs for : g()=1/(2), g()=Abs(sin  on the other hand, when g()=Abs(sin  cos )/2
Fig. 14. The e€ect of the mode ®ber length `mode on the var-
iation in the composite elastic modulus with the direction
angle  for =0 and 90 .
1969
Fig. 15. The curves of the ®ber orientation function g() to be
used in Fig. 16.
cos )/2 and g()=Abs(cos )3/2.663 will be used and
are shown in Fig. 15. Although the FODs of Abs(sin 
cos )/2 and Abs(cos )3/2.663 may not easily be met
practically, their use can e€ectively clarify the e€ect of
g() on the composite modulus. The e€ect of g() on the
composite modulus is shown in Fig. 16, where p=0.6
and q=1 for g() (mean=35.95 ). Figure 16(a) shows
that the FOD g() does not in¯uence the modulus in the
direction (=0 , =any value) but in¯uences the
modulus in other directions. The composite modulus for
the uniform random ®ber distribution for (g()=1/(2))
is independent of the direction angle  (Fig. 16(b)),
while the modulus for the other two cases is dependent
on . And the modulus for g()=1/(2) has a medium
value when compared with those for  from 0 to 90
for the other two cases. Moreover, it is of interest to
note that the curves (see Fig. 16 (b)) of the modulus of
SFRP versus the direction angle  are similar to the
curves (see Fig. 15) of the corresponding g() versus .
Namely, when g()=1/(2), g() does not change
with  and also the modulus does not vary with ;
and g()=Abs(cos )3/2.663, g() is the periodic
function of  and the composite modulus as a function
of  is also periodic.
4 APPLICATION TO EXISTING EXPERIMENTAL
RESULTS
Table 1 makes a comparison between the theoretical
results predicted by the present theory and the experi-
mental results8 of the composite moduli in the direction
=0 and /2 for the unidirectional ®ber alignment
case. Two mean ®ber lengths `mean=0.466 mm (a=5
and b=2.5) as well as `mean=3.198 mm (a=0.15 and
b=1.5)) and df=10 M are assumed and Ef=72.4 GPa,8
Gf=29.6 GPa,8 f=0.22,8 Em=2.8 GPa,8 Gm=1.17 Gpa,8
m=0.358 and Vf=0.50.8 Table 1 shows that the results
of the composite modulus for =0 and =/2 pre-
dicted by the present theory agree well with the
experimental results. Also, the existing theoretical
1970 S.-Y. Fu, B. Lauke

Fig. 17. The cumulative orientation percentage, G(), of ®bers

(experimental results: circle points and theoretical results: solid
line).

Also, the present theory is applied to the published

Fig. 16. The e€ect of the ®ber orientation function g() on the
variation in the composite elastic modulus (a) with the direc-
tion angle  for various  and (b) with the direction angle 
for =60 .
model for the transverse modulus (i.e. the transverse
modulus theory).26,27
Ec … ˆ 90 ; † ˆ Ef Em =…Vf Em ‡ …1 ÿ Vf †Ef † …21†
is applied to the existing experimental result. However,
the modulus value evaluated with this transverse mod-
ulus theory is much lower than the experimental value.
Therefore, the present theory is a more precise model in
predicting the transverse modulus of SFRP for the uni-
directional ®ber alignment case than the transverse
modulus theory (eqn (21)).
experimental results concerning injection-molded short-
glass-®ber-reinforced poly(ethylene terephthalate)
(PET).20 The composite was divided into the surface
layers and the middle layers, and the investigated tensile
bar specimens showed an approximate planar FOD.
The cumulative ®ber orientation percentages of ®bers
were measured for the surfaces layers and the core
(middle) layers, and the cumulative percentage of the
®bers in the whole composite can be obtained from
Kwok et al.20 as shown in Fig. 17 (circle points) for
Vf=0.184. The cumulative orientation distribution
function of ®bers (eqn (8)), is used to simulate the
cumulative FOD, and the result is shown in Fig. 17
(p=0.52 and q=6, see solid line). And the following
data of the parameters are used to predict the variation
in the composite elastic modulus with the direction
(,):20 Ef=76 GPa, Gf=30.4 GPa, f=0.25,
Em=4.0 GPa, Gm=1.43 GPa, m=0.40, Vf=0.184,
df=9.4 m and `mean/df=31 (`mean=0.291 mm, a=6.7
and b=1.7). The composite elastic modulus is evaluated
by the present theory, and the theoretical results and the
experimental results are presented in Fig. 18. The elastic
moduli in the three directions (=0 , =0 ), (=90 ,
=0 ) and (=90 , =90 ) were investigated experi-
mentally. Figure 18 reveals that the theoretical results
agree very well with the experimental ones in the three
directions experimentally investigated.

Table 1. Comparison of the theoretical and experimental results of the longitudinal and transverse moduli of the unidirectional short-
glass-®ber epoxy composite8
System(stress direction) Sti€ness (GPa)
Present theory Transverse modulus theory26,27 Experimental results8
`mean =0.466 mm 3.198 mm
Longitudinal to short ®bers 31.93 36.21 31.0
Transverse to short ®bers 9.58 9.58 5.39 9.6
 Elastic modulus of misaligned short-®ber-reinforced polymers
Fig. 18. Comparison between the theoretical results of the
direction-dependence of the composite elastic modulus of
SFRP and the published experimental results:20
Ec(=0 ,=0 ), &; Ec(=90 ,=0 )~; Ec(=90 ,
   
=90 ), &.
5 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the laminate analogy approach has been
used to derive the expression of the elastic modulus of
SFRP in any given direction (,). The anisotropy of
the elastic modulus SFRP has been studied in detail by
taking into consideration the e€ects of the FLD and the
FOD. It has been shown that the modulus of SFRP in
any direction increases with the increase in the ®ber
volume fraction. A smaller mean ®ber orientation angle
mean leads to a higher composite modulus when the
direction angle  is small, and to lower modulus when
 is large. A smaller mode ®ber orientation angle mod
corresponds to a higher modulus when  is small or
large, and to lower modulus when  is medium for the
uniform random orientation distribution case for  (i.e.
g()=1/(2)) and for the planar FOD case at =0 ,
while for the planar ®ber orientation case at =90 ,
smaller mod leads to a lower modulus when  is small
and the modulus is nearly independent of mod when 
is large. The cumulative FOD has an in¯uence similar to
that of the mode ®ber orientation angle on the variation
in the modulus of SFRP with the direction (,).
Moreover, when the mean ®ber length is small, the
mean ®ber length has a signi®cant in¯uence on the
modulus, and a larger mean ®ber length leads to a
higher modulus when  is small, whereas the composite
modulus is insensitive to the mean ®ber length when 
is large; when the mean ®ber length is large, it has
hardly any in¯uence on the composite modulus. A lar-
ger mode ®ber length corresponds to some extent to a
higher modulus when  is small, while mode ®ber
length also has hardly any in¯uence on the modulus
when  is large. Moreover, the FOD g() has also been
shown to have a signi®cant in¯uence on the variation in
the modulus with the direction (,). And it is of interest
to note that the curves of the composite modulus versus
1971
the direction angle  are similar to the curves of the FOD
function g() versus . Finally, the theory is applied to
some existing experimental results8,20 and the theoretical
results predicted by the present theory are found to agree
well with the published experimental results.
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