Impact Properties of Hybrid Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composite Laminates

Abstract

The increasing demand for high-strength light-weight fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials has driven the researchers to further innovate and introduce hybrid reinforcement materials. The usage of hybrid FRP composite laminates in structural industries is still new and limited research has been reported in this area. Thus, this research is aimed to determine the impact properties of hybrid FRP composite laminate. The impact tests were carried out on three types of FRP composite laminates, i.e. Carbon, Glass and Hybrid, in order to determine the impact properties of the materials. The composite laminates were prepared using hot pressing method. It was found that the hybrid FRP composite laminate exhibited better impact properties with 13% higher specific energy absorption when compared to the neat carbon FRP composite laminate. The impact test on hybrid FRP composite laminate recorded higher peak force, deflection at peak force and energy absorbed values of 109%, 71% and 25% respectively, when compared to the neat CFRP composite laminate.