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The importance of bonding in intralayer carbon fibre/self-reinforced polypropylene hybrid composites

2015; Elsevier BV; Volume: 76; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.compositesa.2015.06.017

1878-5840

Yentl Swolfs, Jia Shi, Yannick Meerten, P.J. Hine, I. M. Ward, Ignace Verpoest, Larissa Gorbatikh,

Fiber-reinforced polymer composites

Polymer composites are usually either stiff or tough, but seldom both. Intralayer hybrids of carbon fibre and self-reinforced polypropylene (PP) do offer the potential to achieve a unique combination of toughness and stiffness. In these hybrids, the bonding between carbon fibre prepregs and PP tapes is a crucial parameter. For a weak bonding, the 20% ultimate tensile failure strain and high penetration impact resistance of self-reinforced PP were maintained. For a strong bonding, the ultimate tensile failure strain was strongly reduced, but the flexural performance was improved. For a homopolymer PP matrix in the prepregs, the weak bonding between fibre and matrix caused the penetration impact resistance to reduce according to a linear rule-of-mixtures. For a maleic anhydride modified PP matrix however, the strong fibre–matrix bonding greatly reduced the penetration impact resistance. These results provide new insights into designing hybrid composites with a unique balance of stiffness and failure strain.