Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites Research Articles

Fabrication and testing of hybrid fibre reinforced composite: a comprehensive review

ABSTRACT Modern industrialisation and the need for low-density material initiated the up-gradation of material for the necessity of sustainability, and the same goes for engineering materials as well. Right from ancient times, composites have an important place in the field of engineering materials, but now demand for such materials, especially fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites, proliferates just to improve the quality of materials as well as the quality of life. The present work provides a comprehensive literature review on hybrid FRP composites, techniques involved in its fabrication, machining and variation in mechanical properties due to hybridisation. The main focused fibre-reinforced composite are glass fibre, carbon fibre, basalt fibre and Kevlar fibre-reinforced polymeric composites. The paper includes recent work that showcases the hybridisation behaviour and their field of application.

An artificial neural network prediction on physical, mechanical, and thermal characteristics of giant reed fiber reinforced polyethylene terephthalate composite

Plant fiber reinforced hybrid polymer composites have had broad applications recently because of their lower cost advantages, lower weight, and biodegradable nature. The present work studies the influence of reinforcing giant reed fiber concentration in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) polymer for their physical, mechanical, and thermal characteristics and determines the optimum loading of giant reed fiber using an artificial neural network (ANN) scheme. Giant reed fiber reinforced PET matrix laminates were manufactured from compression molding with different fiber loadings such as 5 wt.%, 10 wt.%, and 20 wt.%. The mechanical characteristics such as tensile and flexural strength and the laminate’s tensile and flexural modulus were appraised and examined. The maximum value of tensile strength, flexural strength, tensile modulus, and flexural modulus were 5.4 MPa, 26 MPa, 8343 MPa, and 6300 MPa, respectively, for PET2 (10 wt.% of giant reed fiber in PET polymer) composite. Fiber pullout, gaps, and fracture behavior were examined from a scanning electron microscope in the microstructural analysis. A machine learning technique has been recommended to combine artificial intelligence while designing giant reed fiber reinforced polymeric laminates. Using the suggested method, an ANN model has been generated to attain the targeted giant reed fiber concentration for PET composite while gratifying the necessary targeted characteristics. The developed method is very effective and decreases the effort and time of material characterization for huge specimens. It will support the researchers in designing their forthcoming test efficiently.

Vibrational analysis of glass/ramie fiber reinforced hybrid polymer composite

AbstractNatural fiber reinforced hybrid polymer composites have gained extensive applications in recent decades owing to their damping, low density, biodegradability, and low‐cost benefits. This research explores the impact of the surface treatment, and the number of ramie fiber layers on the vibrational and mechanical characteristics of a glass/ramie fiber reinforced hybrid polymer composite. The composite is made of outer layer (glass fiber) and inner layer (ramie fiber) at different concentrations (varying between 2, 3, and 4). The ramie was pre‐treated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at different weight percentages (1%, 2%, and 5%). The composites have been fabricated using the vacuum bag technique. The composites have been characterized for chemical, mechanical, morphological, and free vibrational analysis. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope have been used to study the chemical characteristics and morphological study of the composites respectively. The mechanical properties of the composite were evaluated through tensile and flexural testing. The hybrid composite reinforced with two layers of ramie fiber as the core with 2% pre‐treated shows the maximum tensile strength of 120 MPa and flexural modulus of 12,147 MPa. Overall, the hybridization and NaOH pre‐treatment to certain ratio helps in increase in the hybrid composite's mechanical strength compared to the natural fiber composite.

Fabrication and Mechanical Performance of Graphene Nanoplatelet/Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Hybrid Composites

Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites are promising alternatives for the traditional carbon steel pipes used in the oil and gas industry due to their corrosion and chemical resistance. However, the out-of-plane mechanical properties of GFRPs still need further improvement to achieve this goal. Hence, in this work, two methods combining either vacuum mixing or spray coating with vacuum-assisted resin infusion were studied to fabricate graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)/GFRP hybrid composites. The former method resulted in a severe filtering effect, where the GNPs were not evenly distributed throughout the final composite, whereas the latter process resulted in a uniform GNP distribution on the glass fabrics. The addition of GNPs showed no modest contribution to the tensile performance of the GFRP composites due to the relatively high volume and in-plane alignment of the glass fibers. However, the GNPs did improve the flexural properties of GFRP with an optimal loading of 0.15 wt% GNPs, resulting in flexural strength and modulus increases of 6.8 and 1.6%, respectively. This work indicates how GNPs can be advantageous for out-of-plane mechanical reinforcement in fiber-reinforced composites.

The wavenumber imaging of fiber waviness in hybrid glass–carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite plates

Out-of-plane waviness is one of the most common defects which degenerates the strength, stiffness, and fatigue life of hybrid glass–carbon fiber–reinforced polymer composites (FRPs). An accurate and high-speed non-destructive testing method is highly desired for large composite structures in industries. Ultrasonic phased array is a great candidate for such application. This paper applies the wavenumber algorithm to image the waviness in hybrid FRP plates which are a multi-layered medium. The central frequency of 5 MHZ is chosen in order to maximize the ply resonance. Transducers are migrated virtually to each interface between glass and carbon plies in order to overcome the difficulty of wave propagation analysis in such multi-layered system. The wavenumber algorithm demonstrates a better computational performance compared to that of the traditional total focusing method (TFM) in time domain up to 6 times. The glass ply depth and waviness angle can be more accurately presented with relative errors less than 1.5% and 14.8%, respectively. In addition, the resin-rich defect characterization is also achievable with a maximum error of 14.4%.

Numerical investigation of mechanical properties of hybrid fiber reinforced polymer composites

The fiber reinforced polymer composites replacing traditional materials due to its very good mechanical properties, strength to weight ratio and easily available. The fibers are further classified into two types namely, synthetic and natural, Glass, Carbon, Kevlar etc., have classified as synthetic fibers, similarly, natural fibers namely, Abaca, hemp, sisal, etc. Both fibers having both advantages and disadvantages. In this work, numerically analyzed the mechanical characterization of hybrid composite consist of synthetic and natural fibers using ANSYS software. Totally six natural and synthetic fibers have chosen for analysis namely, Flax, Glass, Hemp, Abaca, Carbon and Kevlar. The total layers six with 6 mm thickness has been used to perform the tensile, flexural and impact test using ANSYS Workbench 2020 R2. The results shows that, Flax/Glass has high tensile strength compared to other combination of composites. In flexural test, Hemp/Kevlar obtained the highest value among other combinations. Impact test shows the Abaca/Carbon has highest impact strength compare to others. So, the higher mechanical properties have been obtained in the order of natural, mixed, and synthetic fiber based composites.

Hybridization of carbon fiber composites with graphene nanoplatelets to enhance interfacial bonding and thermomechanical properties for shape memory applications

ABSTRACT Shape memory polymer composite (SMPC) exhibits the remarkable mechanical properties as compared to its corresponding shape memory polymer (SMP) without compromising the shape memory behavior. The enhancement of the mechanical and thermomechanical properties of the carbon fiber-reinforced SMPC is presented in the present study with the incorporation of graphene nanoplatelets (GnP) in the SMP matrix. The fabrication process involved the preparation of the GnP/epoxy nanocomposites through ultrasonication and shear mixing and the subsequent molding of the carbon fiber-reinforced hybrid polymer composites by hand layup technique. The mechanical and thermomechanical characterizations were conducted as per the ASTM standards, which were followed with corresponding morphological study to the explore the microscale behavior of the hybrid composites. Shape memory behavior were studied in terms of the shape recovery () and shape fixity () through the heat activation bending tests. The tensile strength of the hybrid composites with 0.4 and 0.6 wt% GnP content increased by 14.3% and 32.2%, respectively, as compared to unmodified SMPC. Similar trends were also indicated in the dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) with the corresponding rise in the storage modulus and glass transition temperature due to incorporation of nanofillers. The improvement of the interfacial bonding between the fiber and matrix and wettability of carbon fiber supported these improvements. Negligible adverse effect was noticed in the shape memory behavior of the hybrid composites with the incorporation of GnP, which displayed the and of ~97% and 96%, respectively.

Improvement of Low-Velocity Impact and Abrasive Wear Resistance of Carbon/Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Hybrid Composites

Improvement of Low-Velocity Impact and Abrasive Wear Resistance of Carbon/Glass Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Hybrid Composites

Effect of hybridization of carbon/glass/flax/kenaf fibre composite on flexural and impact properties

Natural fiber reinforced polymer composites are environment friendly apart from being biodegradable. However, due to their poor mechanical properties, industrial applications of structural components haven’t been gained much attention. Therefore, this present investigation estimates the consequences of carbon and glass fiber hybridization on mechanical properties of flax and kenaf fiber reinforced polymer hybrid composites. There are four types of hybrid composites (C2F3C2,C2K3C2,G2F3G2,G2K3G2) as well as plain Carbon (C7), Glass (G7), Flax (F7) and Kenaf (K7) are fabricated by hand lay-up technique. The results revealed that C2F3C2 type hybrid composite has highest flexural strength (364.4Mpa) whereas, maximum impact strength (92.9 kJ/m2) is observed from G2F3G2 type hybrid composite among all hybrid composites. Hence, natural/synthetic fiber reinforced polymer hybrid composites may create opportunities to be used in automobile, aerospace, military, biomedical, infrastructure and transportation applications.

Abrasive wear and dynamic–mechanical behavior of marble dust filled bagasse fiber reinforced hybrid polymer composites

AbstractThe present study investigated the influence of waste materials on physico‐mechanical, dynamic mechanical, and abrasive wear behavior of polymer composites. The composites were manufactured by varying the waste bagasse fiber (2.5, 5, 7.5, and 10 wt%) in fixed marble dust (15 wt%) filled epoxy resin. The void content of the composite found to decrease, whereas density, impact energy, and flexural strength were found to increase with the increase of waste bagasse fiber loading. The hardness and tensile strength were first increased, and after attaining highest values for 7.5 wt% fiber content, both decreased with another fiber loading. Damping properties such as storage modulus, loss modulus, and damping factor were evaluated utilizing dynamic mechanical analyzer. Results showed that the composites with 10 wt% waste bagasse fiber loading exhibited highest viscoelastic properties. Moreover, the dry sand abrasive wear behavior of fabricated composites was designed to study the impact of fiber loading, sliding distance, and load using the Taguchi method. The analysis reveals that the sliding distance contributes the most toward abrasive wear of the composites, with a contribution of 58.70%. 7.5 wt% waste bagasse fiber, 400 m sliding distance, and 5 N load resulted in a most wear‐resistant combination. Finally, the abraded composite surfaces were examined using scanning electron microscopy to study the possible wear mechanisms.

Experimental investigation on mechanical properties of flax/banana/ industrial waste tea leaf fiber reinforced hybrid polymer composites

In the present research, work focus has been given to determine mechanical properties of biodegradable industrial waste tea leaf fiber (WTLF), banana and flax fiber reinforced hybrid polymer composites using experimental approach. Banana fibers and WTLF were alkali treated with 5% NaOH solution. The hybrid composite laminates were manufactured using manually operated compression moulding machine with the volume fraction of 40:60 (Fiber: Matrix). As per ASTM standard, the mechanical characteristics were studied. The experimental results showed excellent mechanical characteristics for 5 wt% WTLF and 25- wt% banana fiber reinforced hybrid composites. The fractography analysis of untreated and alkali treated composites were examined using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and results revealed that superior mechanical bonding existed between fiber and polymer in case of alkali treated fiber composites.

A Review on Application of Single and Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites

The applications of natural fiber composites have enormously increased due to the high availability, eco-friendly nature and practical applications of the composites. In this review different fiber combinations using natural fiber and synthetic fibers have been investigated and found with interesting results. The hybrid nature of fiber reinforcement adds to the mechanical properties of polymer-based composites. The hybridization using more than one fiber reduces the surface deformations in the polymer matrix and enhanced the bonding ability of polymer composites. The alkali treatment was the effective surface treatment process for improving the cellulosic nature with good crystalline nature, good bonding ability with the polymer matrix, this adds to the properties of polymer-based composites. The crystallinity index of 43-68 % were observed in surface treated natural fibers.

Effect of brachyura shell particles on glass fibre reinforced epoxy polymer composite

Abstract Bio filler E-glass fiber reinforced hybrid polymer composites having massive demand in the present scenario due to their excellent mechanical properties and also increasing of environmental awareness. Bio fillers like crab shell powder, sawdust, prawn shell powder, rice husk are the best substituent for glass, carbon, ceramic, synthetic fillers. Every year, 8.5 million tons of crab & shrimp shell waste generated in India. To manage this waste it was used as a filler material along with the E-glass fiber with epoxy. Polymer composite due to crab shell chemical similarity with CaCO3.In the present study crab shell powder with various fractions (0%, 3%, 5%, and 7%) & e-glass fiber was composed to prepared hybrid polymer composites by adopting wet hand lay-up process, followed by 24 hr curing at room temperature. Crab shell powder reinforced hybrid polymer composites density, SEM studies and mechanical properties (hardness, tensile strength, flexural strength and impact strength) were determined as per ASTM standards. The density of the hybrid polymer composites increased with increasing the weight fraction of the crab shell powder. The higher mechanical properties were obtained at 5% crab shell powder filler composite.

Dynamic mechanical behaviour of kevlar and carbon-kevlar hybrid fibre reinforced polymer composites

Comprehensive experimental results of dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) of polymer reinforced textile composites are presented in the current investigation. Plain and 2x2 twill woven multilayer fabrics of monolithic kevlar and hybrid carbon-kevlar (C-K) are reinforced into the thermoset polymer matrix. Kevlar/epoxy and C-K/epoxy composite laminates are fabricated using an in-house facility of the vacuum-assisted resin infusion process. Variation of the visco-elastic behaviour (storage modulus, damping factor and glass transition temperature, Tg) along with time, temperature and frequency is studied for the composites. Dynamic mechanical analysis is performed under temperature sweep with frequency ranging from 1-50 Hz. Results depict the effect of inter yarn hybridisation of carbon with kevlar yarns on the storage modulus, damping performance, and creep behaviour of dry textile composites. Temperature swept dynamic characterisation is also performed to evaluate the degradation and damping performance of the composite laminates soaked in the deionised water at glass transition temperature Tg, ½ Tg, and ¾ Tg. The morphological study has been performed post the dynamic mechanical analysis using field emission scanning electron microscope.

Evaluation of flexural strength of hybrid FRP composites having three distinct laminates

The high-performance fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites have been extensively preferred as a replacement to the conventional materials. These composites have impressive mechanical properties. This study involves the fabrication and investigation of the flexural strength of the hybrid FRPs material made from three distinct laminates. The hybrid FRPs have been prepared using hand lay-up technique. The fabricated specimens have been tested under three-point bending following ASTM D790 standards. From the results, it has been observed that the specimen having Kevlar at the topmost has the highest value of flexural strength. This feature of hybrid FRP makes it a better alternative to conventional materials used for leaf springs.

Sensitivity analysis of abrasive air-jet machining parameters on machinability of carbon and glass fiber reinforced hybrid composites

Carbon and glass fiber reinforced epoxy polymer hybrid composites facilitate to tailor the mechanical properties of the composites. However, the machining of hybrid fiber reinforced polymer composite is a challenge by conventional processes due to the different types of fiber reinforcements and anisotropic nature of composites. Researchers and scientists have evaluated the machinability of plain or single fiber reinforced polymer composites through abrasive water jet machining and abrasive air jet machining. Therefore, the present investigation emphasizes on the development of symmetrical hybrid composites, evaluation of mechanical properties and machining of the hybrid composites through abrasive air jet machining (AAJM). There are three types of hybrid composites such as C2G3]S, [CG3C]S and [CG2CG]S along with plain glass ([G]10) and carbon ([C]10) fiber reinforced polymer composites fabricated by hand lay-up technique. It is observed that the [CG2CG]S type hybrid composite has the optimum tensile and flexural strength as compared to other composites. Hence, [CG2CG]S type hybrid composites along with plain glass and carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites was considered for the machinability study. The sensitivity of AAJM process parameters on material removal rate (MRR), depth of cut (DOC) and surface roughness (Ra) are investigated and optimized through response surface methodology (RSM). The optimum machining process output predicted by the RSM model for [CG2CG]S type hybrid composite is MRR = 3.26 × 10−3 g/sec, DOC = 1.48 mm and surface roughness (Ra) = 1.48 μm. The predicted model results compared with the experimental values and found a good agreement between them. The surface morphology of the drilled composite sample is investigated under scanning electron microscope. It is observed that the surface damage of the drilled surface of the composites is minimal. Thus, the abrasive air jet machining process can be employed for drilling of polymer matrix composites to overcome the conventional machining issues.

Influence of different resins on Physico-Mechanical properties of hybrid fiber reinforced polymer composites used in human prosthetics

Aim of the study is to use natural and synthetic fibers to fabricate a prosthetic limb. Conventionally, natural fibers are not used for prosthesis. However, synthetic fibers such as Carbon fiber, Kevlar fiber and the Glass fiberare extensively in use as reinforcement in the manufacturing of prosthesis. In this paper the influence of different resin on physico-mechanical properties of hybrid fiber reinforced polymer composites were observed.Composites for prosthetic limb were manufactured with constant 5 wt% glass fiberhybridised with varied jute and grewiaoptiva loading (2.5 wt%, 5 wt% and 7.5 wt% each) reinforced based epoxy, vinyl ester and polyester matrix.Results show that the strength and hardness get improved as the ratio of natural fiber increases.The highest tensile, flexural,were obtained forepoxy-basedhybrid composite at 7.5 wt%, vinylester based hybrid composite at 5 wt% samples E3, V2, E3 and E2 respectively. In addition, both Impact energy and hardness were observed to be maximum for epoxy based hybrid composites at 7.5 wt% and 5 wt% respectively. Results also reveal that 5 wt% glass fiber (fixed), 10 wt% natural fibre with epoxy is the best composition among fabricated samples followed by the vinyl ester composite ofthe same composition. As evidence, TOPSIS results also convey the best composition among the fabricated composites.

Influence of glass/carbon fiber stacking sequence on mechanical and three-body abrasive wear resistance of hybrid composites

Glass and carbon fiber reinforced polymer hybrid composites are the need of the hour to overcome the weakness of individual fibers. The mechanical and abrasive wear property of the hybrid composites needs to be evaluated to ascertain the feasibility in structural and tribological applications. In this article, hybrid composites of different stacking sequence such as [G3C2]S, [GCG2C]S and[G2C2G]S has been designed. The flexural strength and three body abrasive wear resistance of the hybrid composites were evaluated and compared among themselves. It is observed that the flexural strength and modulus of [GCG2C]S type hybrid composite was improved by 46.1% and 49.5% respectively as compared to plain glass fiber reinforced polymer composites. The specific wear rate was evaluated by three-body abrasive wear at different operating parameters and optimized the same through response surface methodology. Box–Behnken design of the experiment was adopted to design the experiments. The model has predicted the minimum specific wear rate for [GCG2C]S hybrid composite is18.8476 × 10–3 mm3 Nm−1 at applied load of 33.15 N and sliding distance of 1100 m. The model predicted results were compared with experimental one and found a good agreement between them. The worn surface of the composites was analyzed by scanning electron microscope to understand the wear mechanism.

Effect of Stacking Sequence and Fiber Orientation on Natural Frequency of Hybrid Composites – an FE Approach

Hybridization technique wherein more than one type of fiber is combined in the same matrix provides an added advantage to the designer to further explore the potential of fiber-reinforced polymer composite. The dynamic behavior of an interlayer hybrid composite is complex as the stiffness of each layer of the fiber can influence the modal parameters like frequency and mode shapes. In this work the dynamic behavior of the interlayer hybrid composites is investigated. The Eigen values and Eigen vectors for glass & carbon fiber reinforced hybrid polymer composites are numerically obtained using the Finite Element software (ANSYS). The effects of fiber direction and inter layer fiber stacking sequence on the Eigen values and Eigen vectors are studied. The variation of natural frequencies for boundary conditions such as Free-Free-Free-Free (F-F-F-F) & Clamped-Free-Free-Free (C-F-F-F) are also presented in this paper.

Investigation of bio-waste natural fiber–reinforced polymer hybrid composite: effect on mechanical and tribological characteristics of biodegradable composites

The global energy crises and environmental pollution have encouraged investigators, scientist, and engineers to develop a substitute material for the conventional material. Since the availability of the natural fibers is abundant, many researchers in the worldwide are focusing their attention on the improvement of natural fiber–reinforced composites, which act as a substitute material for the synthetic natural fibers. This work examines the study of mechanical and tribological properties of tensile, flexural, impact, wear rate, and friction coefficient of the banana/hemp hybrid composites, which are calculated with the aid of NaOH-treated composite specimens. Composites were fabricated for various wt.% of the fiber content, different length of the fiber and matrix. Surface morphology of the fractured specimen of the alkali-treated fibers composites is studied by using SEM images. The effect of water absorption behavior on the mechanical properties of banana/hemp fiber composites was also determined.