Experimental investigation of hybridization effect of Kevlar and Glass fibers on CFRP composite under low velocity impact

Abstract

This paper experimentally investigates the effect of Kevlar and glass fibers on carbon fibers epoxy composite to enhance the impact strength under low velocity impact (LVI). Experiments were conducted on various combinations of Kevlar, glass, and carbon FRP composites to study the dynamic impact behavior using a drop-weight impact tester. Five varieties of the hybrid composite were selected for experimentation using a drop-weight impact tower Instron, CEAST 9340. Out of five combinations, the first sample contains only carbon fiber with a different orientation, and the other four contain interplay hybrid fibers (Kevlar-carbon-Kevlar, Glass-carbon-Glass, Kevlar-carbon-glass, and glass-carbon-kevlar) 8-ply composite. The carbon fiber layers are inserted within each hybrid composites to investigate how the Kevlar and glass fiber qualities affect the impact resistance of CFRP composite. The analytical modeling results were compared with experimental results, which are in good agreement. The delamination and damage location were detected using an advanced ultrasonic C-scan. The damage area of laminates is measured using ImageJ software. The analysis shows that the amount of absorbed energy increased in a hybrid laminate having Kevlar at outer surface locations.

Keywords:

• Hybridization
• CFRP
• Low velocity impact
• Delamination
• Ultrasonic C-scan

Acknowledgments

The authors are extremely thankful to IIT Kanpur for granting permission to conduct the drop weight impact test and Tata Advanced Systems Ltd., Nagpur, for conducting NDT testing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).