Experimental and numerical investigation of fracture toughness of hybrid glass/metal fiber reinforced polymer composites

Abstract

In this paper, the usefulness of industrial waste metal fiber as a reinforcement in hybrid glass/metal fiber epoxy composites is investigated. The hybrid composites of four-stacking sequence HSG-1, HSG-2, HSG-3, and HSG-4 were fabricated using the vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) technique under a controlled environment. Mode-I fracture toughness of hybrid glass/metal fiber epoxy composites was examined through an experimental SENB test. For the hybrid composites HSG-4, the stress intensity factor of 425.12 MPa.mm1/2 was maximum during mode-I loading compared to the other stacking sequences. Furthermore, finite element analysis for fracture toughness was also carried out, and the simulation results were compared with those of the experiments. With R2 value of 0.99 the deviation was in the range of 0% to 3%. In light of the evaluated results, this research can be expanded to address marine applications simultaneously, allowing for optimal waste usage to reduce environmental issues.