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

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 R-2 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.