Effects of fibre orientation and content on the mechanical, dynamic mechanical and thermal expansion properties of multi-layered glass/carbon fibre-reinforced polymer composites

Abstract

Multi-layered glass and carbon-reinforced polymer composites may exhibit unique properties comparatively with the benchmark, proven they are being tailored bounded by several requirements. The paper herein approaches issues on the influence of the various contents and orientation of UD carbon fibre constitutive on the mechanical, dynamical and thermal expansion if embedded along with glass fibres in different stacking sequencing within an unsaturated polymer resin. The results show that the architectures with the highest content of carbon fibres (e.g. GF:CF(60:40) – 0° and 90°) provide the best tensile and flexural properties, and behave better under dynamical loading conditions and temperature variations, no matter the orientation directions. In addition, it was shown that a thorough understanding can be attained, with respect to the UD carbon fibre content, and different orientations influence on the overall composite material properties, taking into account the data retrieved from dynamical and thermal expansion runs.