Abstract
While conventional fiber-reinforced polymer composites offer high strength and stiffness, they lack ductility and the ability to absorb energy before failure. This work investigates hybrid fiber composites for structural applications comprised of polymer, steel fiber, and glass fibers to address this shortcoming. Varying volume fractions of thin, ductile steel fibers were introduced into glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites. Non-hybrid and hybrid composite specimens were prepared and subjected to monolithic and half-cyclic tensile testing to obtain stress-strain relationships, hysteresis behavior, and insight into failure mechanisms. Open-hole testing was used to assess the vulnerability of the composites to stress concentration. Incorporating steel fibers into glass/epoxy composites offered a significant improvement in energy absorption prior to failure and material re-centering capabilities. It was found that a lower percentage of steel fibers (8.2%) in the hybrid composite outperformed those with higher percentages (15.7% and 22.8%) in terms of energy absorption and re-centering, as the glass reinforcement distributed the plasticity over a larger area. A bilinear hysteresis model was developed to predict cyclic behavior of the hybrid composite.
Highlights
Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are commonly comprised of glass or carbon fibers to provide a high-strength and lightweight material for a variety of industries
This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on the mechanical properties, energy dissipation capacity, and strain re-centering ability of composites comprised of glass and steel fibers in an epoxy matrix
The failure strain of the composites was not not nearly as high as the [S]8 composite (Figure 3), these results suggest that the presence of steel nearly as high as the [S]8 composite (Figure 3), these results suggest that the presence of steel yielding yielding can afford warning to potential structural failure
Summary
Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are commonly comprised of glass or carbon fibers to provide a high-strength and lightweight material for a variety of industries These fibers are inherently brittle and have a limited energy absorption capacity prior to failure. Satish and coworkers studied the tensile and compressive behavior of a steel/nylon fiber reinforced polyester composite [23]. Ahmed studied composite multifunctionality by considering the impact behavior of the hybridization of glass and steel reinforcement, observing that the addition of metal fibers provides increased energy absorption and lowered the damage area under low velocity impact [24]. Thysen studied the effect of lay-up and fiber ratios on the tensile strength and failure strain of glass/steel composites in epoxy and nylon (PA-6) matrices [25]. The behavior after damage, energy dissipation during loading, and re-centering capabilities of the different hybrids are of interest to ascertain the applicability of hybrid composites in structural engineering
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