Characterisation of Hybrid Carbon Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (C/GFRP) of Balanced Cross Ply and Quasi Isotropic under Tensile and Flexural Loading

Abstract

This study is performed to characterize composite material of hybrid carbon glass reinforced polymer (C/GFRP) of two (2) types; namely balanced cross ply and quasi isotropic subjected to tensile and flexural loading. The mechanical testing performed on the hybrid composite as per ASTM standard and aimed to extract the mechanical properties related to tensile and flexural. The failure modes associated with the rupture of the composites/hybrid composites samples under tensile and three-point bending were assessed via JEOL 6010 Plus Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) instrument. The combination of GFRP lay-up at 0° at tensile side, GFRP lay-up 90° at compression side and ±45° lay-up of CFRP at shear/compression region enable the hybrid composite cross ply 8 to record the highest flexural strength. The substitution of 0° GFRP with 0° layup CFRP together with layup of 90° GFRP in hybrid composite cross ply 4, matrix/resin dominated layup acts as stress reliever in compression region during flexural loading taking place. This has induced to the increase of flexural strength, which observed to improve its original constituent of cross ply 2 (balanced cross ply GFRP). The factor of layup GFRP at transverse direction has enabled hybrid composite to possess a higher tensile modulus and to record considerably high tensile strength. The role of GFRP layup in enhancing the strain to failure in tensile and its role as a reliever in improving flexural strength during flexural loading has been tested and justified in this experiment.