Hybrid woven glass fibre fabric-multi-walled carbon nanotube-epoxy composites under low rate impact

Abstract

This research work addresses the issue of developing light composite materials with increased ability for impact energy absorption. Novel, hybrid plain woven glass fibre fabric-epoxy laminates with multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) interlayers were fabricated in this study so that (a) only a few MWNT interlayers were placed close to the face of the laminate to be subjected to impact and (b) the interlayers were fabricated via innovative wide-line electrospinning of MWNT/epoxy/solvent solutions, depositing a mixture of aligned fibres and spray on the woven glass fibre fabrics; the laminate was then fabricated via resin transfer moulding (RTM). Hybrid nano-micro-composite laminates with 0.15 wt% MWNT were prepared with this method and were subjected to single low rate impact tests. It was found that the optimised hybrid laminates had 22% greater total penetration energy translated to 15% weight reduction in the laminate armour for an equivalent amount of energy penetration.