Hybrid carbon/glass fiber composites: Micromechanical analysis of structure–damage resistance relationships

• Published in: Computational materials science Vol. 81; pp. 630 - 640
• Main Authors: Mishnaevsky, Leon, Dai, Gaoming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.01.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: A. Hybrid composites; A. Polymer–matrix composites (PMCs); Applied sciences; C. Damage mechanics; C. Modeling; Carbon fiber reinforced plastics; Composites; Compressing; Computation; Damage; Exact sciences and technology; Fibers; Forms of application and semi-finished materials; Glass fibers; Hybrid composites; Polymer industry, paints, wood; Strength; Technology of polymers; C. Modeling; A. Polymer–matrix composites (PMCs); C. Damage mechanics; A. Hybrid composites; Elastic modulus; Volume fraction; Stress strain relation; Compression test; Hybrid composite; Tension test; Composite material; Micromechanics; Finite element method; A. Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs); Three dimensional model; Fibre reinforced plastics; Fiber orientation; Stiffness; Glass fiber; Microstructure; Damaging; Carbon fiber
• ISSN: 0927-0256; 1879-0801
• DOI: 10.1016/j.commatsci.2013.08.024

•Damage evolution of hybrid carbon/glass fiber composites (HC) is studied.•Hybrid composites can have lower strength than (less stiff) pure glass composites.•Critical elongation of HC decreases with increasing the fraction of carbon fibers.•The results obtained from the fiber bundle model are validated by 3D FEM model. A computational study of the effect of microstructure of hybrid carbon/glass fiber composites on their strength is presented. Unit cells with hundreds of randomly located and misaligned fibers of various properties and arrangements are subject to tensile and compression loading, and the evolution of fiber damages is analyzed in numerical experiments. The effects of fiber clustering, matrix properties, nanoreinforcement, load sharing rules on the strength and damage resistance of composites are studied. It was observed that hybrid composites under uniform displacement loading might have lower strength than pure composites, while the strength of hybrid composites under inform force loading increases steadily with increasing the volume content of carbon fibers.