An assessment of mechanical behavior of glass fiber/epoxy composites with secondary short carbon fiber reinforcements

Abstract

AbstractUtilizing recycled or short fibers for making useful engineering composite component is a present research trend and requirement. Current research work explicates the effect of short carbon fibers (SCF) used as secondary reinforcement in woven glass/epoxy hybrid composites and evaluates their mechanical properties. Different concentrations (0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 wt%) of SCF were incorporated to assess the tensile, flexural, and interlaminar fracture toughness (Mode I and II) of the resulted composites. Composites with 0.1 wt% SCF showed 29.02% and 16.08% increment in the tensile and flexural strength, respectively. For Mode I and Mode II interlaminar fracture toughness tests, 0.1 wt% SCF‐GE samples showed the highest strain energy release rate. Double cantilever beam specimens were used for Mode I testing and an improvement of 13.49% invalue was observed. End‐notched flexure method was used for the Mode II tests, and 0.1 wt% SCF‐GE samples showed 20.45% increase invalues. This paper explains the various reasons and mechanisms for obtaining such results. Scanning electron microscopy of the fractured surfaces was carried out to perceive the diverse failure micro‐mechanisms that could have been involved.