Effects of hybridization and fiber orientation on flexural properties of hybrid short glass fiber- and short carbon fiber-reinforced vinyl ester composites

Short fiber-reinforced hybrid polymer (SFRHP) composites were prepared using short glass fibers (SGFs) and short carbon fibers (SCFs) as the reinforcements and vinyl ester resin as the matrix. The flexural properties of all-SGF, all-SCF, and SGF-SCF hybrid composites with controlled fiber orientation were found out experimentally and also predicted using rule of hybrid mixtures. Hand layup technique was used for the preparation of the composites. Composites with different patterns of fiber alignment were prepared and their properties were compared with randomly oriented short fiber composites. The results showed that the flexural performance of samples with longitudinal orientation of the fibers was significantly better than randomly oriented samples for all composites. Synergistic effect of hybridization (positive hybridization) with respect to flexural properties of SFRHP composites was obtained by controlling the orientation of the fibers. It was shown that the hybridization of fibers in the short fiber composites can provide economic savings.