Experimental study on mechanical properties of E-Glass fiber reinforced with epoxy resin composite and compare its properties with hybrid composite

Abstract

The current study is examining the mechanical and physical properties of a hybrid composite which is made by adding plain weave copper strips mesh in between the layers of fiberglass in a GFRP composite before curing. GFRP composite is typically an FRP composite in which fiberglass was used as a reinforcement and epoxy resin LY 556 was used as a matrix. Both composites were fabricated using the traditional hand layup moulding technique, with fiber loading 20% in each. Epoxy resin takes 24 h to cure, and after 48 h samples were prepared as per ASTM standards. Samples of both composites were prepared in the same environmental conditions to get more accurate results. Mechanical and physical characteristics like tensile strength, impact strength, flexural strength, density, and hardness were evaluated on both GFRP and hybrid composites. The results reveal that was an increment in tensile strength by 16.357% in the hybrid composite as compared to the GFRP composite, the flexural strength of the hybrid composite was increased by 29.019%, where the breaking energy or impact energy of the hybrid composite was increased by 55.55%, the density of hybrid composite was increased by 57.208% and hardness of hybrid composite was increased by 13.846%.