Low-Velocity Impact Behavior of Carbon/Basalt Fiber-Reinforced Intra-ply Hybrid Composites

Abstract

The effect of hybridization on the low-velocity impact behavior of woven carbon/basalt fiber-reinforced intra-ply hybrid composites was investigated experimentally. Three types of basalt- and carbon-based homogeneous with 60% volume fraction of neat fiber (basalt fiber and carbon fiber) and twill intra-ply hybrid composite laminates with 30\xa0wt% carbon and 30\xa0wt% basalt fiber contents were fabricated by vacuum-assisted resin infusion molding method. Improvement in the impact toughness and reduction in the cost of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites were the main purposes of using this type of hybrid composites. Energy profile method was used to determine the impact penetration threshold. In this regard, drop weight tests are carried out in 20, 50, 60 and 80\xa0J energy magnitudes and force–deflection and absorbed energy–time diagrams are plotted. The effect of intra-ply hybridization on maximum contact force, absorbed energy, maximum deflection and duration time of carbon/basalt-based composites was investigated. According to the scanning electron microscopy results, various failure modes occurred during low-velocity impact test such as micro-cracks, debonding, delamination in interface, fiber pull out and fiber breakage. The results indicate that the impact performance of homogenous composites is improved by hybridization, i.e., the maximum force and absorbed impact energy of CFRPs are increased 62.3 and 186% by the addition of basalt fibers as a complementary element to the structure of composites.