Glass/Carbon Fibre Hybrid Composite Laminates for Structural Applications in Automotive Vehicles

Abstract

An innovative pultrusion process makes it possible to produce fiber reinforced polyurethane composites with superior mechanical properties that allow various applications in the automotive industry e.g. as structural lightweight parts for future e-mobility. In the new pultruded polyurethane composite more reinforcing fibers can be concentrated to achieve excellent short term mechanical properties e.g. stiffness, strength or damage tolerance. Furthermore the new costeffective and highly automated process allows the production of profiles with very complex cross-sections. However, the knowledge on long term mechanical behaviour of this polyurethane material is limited. In the present study continuous fiber reinforced composites fabricated by the innovative pultrusion process are investigated in terms of viscoelastic creep and creep-rupture properties. Specimens of unidirectional E-glass with polyurethane, epoxy, polyester resins and a composite of polyurethane with basalt fiber have been tested in long term three-point flexure tests. For theoretical description the plate theory of E. REISSNER has been considered and simplified to derivate analytical solutions. Furthermore approaches are currently made to modify the constitutive equations in the simplified Reissner respectively thus the experimental data can be used for the mathematical description of creep behavior in thicker plates.