Influence of SMA Short Fibers on Mechanical Properties of Copper/GFRP Composites

Abstract

Plain GFRP, copper wire embedded GFRP and SMA short fibres included copper wires embedded GFRP laminates have been prepared by hand lay-up method. The mechanical properties like flexural and tensile strength were investigated. To study the impact properties of the laminates an experimental set up was designed and the impact strength of the laminates was studied by drop weight method. Three point bend method was adopted for flexural studies and the tensile strength was found by Instron Machine. It is found that the inclusion of SMA short fibres significantly improved the mechanical properties of the composites.