Bending strength of intra-ply/inter-ply hybrid thermoplastic composites

Bending properties of infra-ply, inter-ply and intra-ply/inter-ply Carbon/Electrical Glass (E-Glass)/polypropylene (PP) hybrid thermoplastic composites were determined and compared with those of non-hybrid Carbon/PP and E-Glass/PP thermoplastic composites. The hybrid and non-hybrid composites were manufactured by using the uni-directional woven carbon/PP, E-glass/PP and carbon/E-glass/PP thermoplastic prepregs. The fiber fractions significantly affected the density, bending-strength, bending-modulus and bending-deflection of hybrid thermoplastic composites. The bending-strength and modulus of the hybrid thermoplastic composites were higher compared to non-hybrid thermoplastic composites. It is observed that the intra-ply hybridization caused a more catastrophic failure after bending load on both surface and cross-section than the inter-ply and intra-ply/inter-ply hybridization. The uniform distribution of Carbon and E-Glass fibers within and between the layers of composites by using intra-ply/inter-ply hybridization resulted as the higher bending modulus up to 65.1% compared to non-hybrid composites.