Abstract
Safe, light, and high-performance engineering structures may be generated by adopting composite materials with stable damage process (i.e., without catastrophic delamination). Interlayer hybrid composites may fail stably by suppressing catastrophic interlayer delamination. This paper provides a detailed analysis of delamination occurring in poly(acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) (ABS) or polystyrene (PS) film interleaved carbon-glass/epoxy hybrid composites. The ABS films toughened the interfaces of the hybrid laminates, generating materials with higher mode II interlaminar fracture toughness (GIIC), delamination stress (σdel), and eliminating the stress drops observed in the reference baseline material, i.e., without interleaf films, during tensile tests. Furthermore, stable behaviour was achieved by treating the ABS films in oxygen plasma. The mechanical performance (GIIC and σdel) of hybrid composites containing PS films, were initially reduced but increased after oxygen plasma treatment. The plasma treatment introduced O-C=O and O-C-O-O functional groups on the PS surfaces, enabling better epoxy/PS interactions. Microscopy analysis provided evidence of the toughening mechanisms, i.e., crack deflection, leading plasma-treated PS to stabilise delamination.
Highlights
Delamination can lead to severe damage in composites and compromise the load-bearing capacity of the material [1,2]
Our study focuses on delamination in pure mode II
The results show that the plasma treatment only introduced hydroxyl groups and carbonyl groups
Summary
Delamination can lead to severe damage in composites and compromise the load-bearing capacity of the material [1,2]. The measured spectrum is depicted as points, whereas the envelope and the plasma-treated ABS. A covalent bondare could possibly form during thenote processing of the plies different in the two graphs as we wanted to compare the C=C peaks. This way, the areas of the two C1s different in the two graphs asmay we wanted the C=C peaks. This way, between the areas of the two plasma-treated which lead totoa compare significantly stronger them. Wayathe areas of the two C1s is different in the two graphs as we wanted to compare the C=C peaks. This way the areas of the two of thespectra interfacial mechanical properties are visually comparable, too.). in the hybrid composites containing plasma-treated ABS
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