Abstract
The present study is aimed at investigating the effect of hybridisation on Kevlar/E-Glass based epoxy composite laminate structures. Composites with 3 mm thickness and 16 layers of fibre (14 layers of E-glass centred and 2 outer layers of Kevlar) were fabricated using compression moulding technique. The fibre orientation of the Kevlar layers had 3 variations (0, 45 and 60°), whereas the E-glass fibre layers were maintained at 0° orientation. Tensile, flexural, impact (Charpy and Izod), interlaminar shear strength and ballistic impact tests were conducted. The ballistic test was performed using a gas gun with spherical hard body projectiles at the projectile velocity of 170 m/s. The pre- and post-impact velocities of the projectiles were measured using a high-speed camera. The energy absorbed by the composite laminates was further reported during the ballistic test, and a computerised tomographic scan was used to analyse the impact damage. The composites with 45° fibre orientation of Kevlar fibres showed better tensile strength, flexural strength, Charpy impact strength, and energy absorption. The energy absorbed by the composites with 45° fibre orientation was 58.68 J, which was 14% and 22% higher than the 0° and 60° oriented composites.
Highlights
Polymer composite materials have been increasingly used in place of traditional materials in recent years due to their superior mechanical properties and ability to achieve desired properties through the selection of constituent materials
Over the last few decades, the use of high-performance composite materials has increased in structural applications that are prone to accidental dynamic loading
Compared to the 0◦ and 45◦ fibre orientation, 60◦ fibre orientation composite showed 47% and 17% higher modulus value. These varying tensile properties are attributed to the difference in the fibre loading direction. These results clearly show the influence of fibre orientation against the tensile properties
Summary
Polymer composite materials have been increasingly used in place of traditional materials in recent years due to their superior mechanical properties and ability to achieve desired properties through the selection of constituent materials. Resistance to impact loading should be considered one of the primary requirements of high-pressure structural design [1]. The response of these materials to dynamic loading conditions has recently received a lot of attention from academia. Impact events are commonly classified into three types based on their speed, projectile type, damage mechanism, and energy absorption behaviour, namely low-speed impact, high-speed impact, and hyper-velocity impact events [2,3]. When subjected to impact loading, composite materials exhibit complex failure modes, resulting in visible and invisible damage to object penetrations. Understanding the response, energy absorption behaviour, and failure mechanism is a major concern that must be addressed. Polymer composites absorb energy during impact and undergo failure through different mechanisms, such as primary fibre failures, secondary fibre deformation, matrix cracks, delamination, shear plug formation, moving cone, and friction [6,7]
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