Development of bi-directional pseudo-ductile glass/carbon-epoxy hybrid composites for improved safety in structural applications
Gergely Czél
Abstract
Pseudo-ductility was demonstrated in interlayer hybrid composites which have fibre reinforcement in two perpendicular directions. The central carbon-epoxy layer was reinforced with a range of fibres either in balanced spread tow tape based dry fabric or unidirectional prepreg format oriented in 0° and 90°. The high strain S-glass/epoxy layers were made of the same unidirectional prepregs with 0/90° orientation for all tested configurations. Stiffness increments of 20–70% were achieved compared to the estimated elastic modulus of the cross-ply S-glass/epoxy baseline composite. Pseudo-ductile stress-strain response with visually detectable damage initiation and a plateau after the initial linear stage was obtained for all configurations. The manufacturing of the developed laminates was found to be suitable for an industrial setting with no need for special equipment.