Multiscale Material Modelling for Evaluating Mechanical and Electrical Characteristics of Graphene/Glass Fibre Epoxy Hybrid Composites

Investigating the impact of graphene incorporation in epoxy–glass fibre hybrid composites on mechanical and electrical properties through Multiscale Material Modelling (MMM). In this paper, it is examined how the inclusion of graphene in epoxy and glass fibre hybrid composites affected their mechanical and electrical characteristics. This analysis is carried out by employing a MMM and Finite Element Modelling (FEM) to evaluate elastic constants, Poisson’s ratio, and electrical properties. The representative volume elements were employed to model the graphene and glass fibre phases. By employing the Mori–Tanaka and Fei Deng models, multiscale analysis was conducted to predict the elastic constants and electrical conductivity of the hybrid composites. The outcomes revealed that the addition of 5 wt% graphene enhanced the longitudinal and transverse Young’s modulus, in-plane and out-plane Poisson ratio, and in-plane and out-plane shear modulus of glass fibre hybrid composites by 0.95%, 7.12%, 6.44%, 2.66%, 2.47%, and 3.65% respectively. Furthermore, the electrical conductivity of these composites increased by 0.69% with the addition of 5 wt% graphene, compared to 1 wt% addition of graphene, and the orientation does not significantly affect the overall electrical conductivity because of the establishment of conductive pathways.