Analysis of a Hybrid Composite Material for a Relation Between Ply Angle, Strength and Fibre Volume Fraction

Given the scenarios of collision damages and speeding accidents, currently, there has been demand to develop a light and impact-resistant material for all the domains from automobile to aerospace. As a solution, a material is to be considered which is lightweight but possesses the strength of the metal as well as has higher impact absorption properties. Characteristics like high strength-to-weight ratio and application-based property tailoring have kept the composite materials in limelight for a longer time. This study involved manufacturing a hybrid composite material to test the properties when unidirectional and bidirectional carbon fabrics and unidirectional glass fabric are used together. Different stacking sequence was used for four test specimens made. After that, testing of mechanical properties with the help of tensile test, bending test, impact test and volume fraction test was conducted using ASTM standards and the results for the same helped establish the relation between ply angles, volume fraction and strength of a composite material. Major changes were observed in mechanical properties of composite material laminates due to interplay of parameters like ply angle, volume fraction, material of reinforcement and stacking order. The result analysis helped decide which stacking sequence and ply angle combination provide the best impact absorption capacity and which mechanical properties are to be traded in choosing a particular manufactured specimen.