Experimental evaluation and numerical validation of bending and impact behaviours of hybrid composites with various stacking arrangements

Abstract

In recent years, the fiber-based composites are preferred as alternate materials for traditional metallic materials and alloys in numerous structural applications. The paper deals with the influence of fabric stacking patterns on the flexural and impact properties of laminated jute/carbon hybrid composites in the epoxy matrix. The composite laminates were prepared with four layers of fabrics, which are stacked in different sequences by the hand-layup method. The flexural and impact behaviours of the prepared composite test specimens were experimentally studied as per ASTM standards. The experimental results revealed that the hybrid laminates with natural jute fabric as core and carbon fabric at outer surfaces exhibited a flexural strength of 401.82 MPa and impact strength of 22.5 kJ m−2. The 3D solid models of the composite specimens were imported to Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software to validate the flexural and impact strength with specific experimental load conditions. The experimental and predicted FEA results were compared and observed that a good agreement between the results.