Behaviour of hybrid jute-glass/epoxy composite tubes subjected to lateral loading

Experimental work on hybrid and non-hybrid composite tubes subjected to lateral loading has been carried out using jute, glass and hybrid jute-glass/epoxy materials. Tubes of 200 mm length with 110 mm inner diameter were fabricated by hand lay-up method to investigate the effect of material used and the number of layers on lateral-load-displacement relations and on the failure mode. Crush force efficiency and the specific energy absorption of the composite tubes were calculated. Results show that the six layers glass/epoxy tubes supported load higher 10.6% than that of hybrid jute-glass/epoxy made of two layers of jute/epoxy four layers of glass/epoxy. It has been found that the specific energy absorption of the glass/epoxy tubes is found higher respectively 11.6% and 46% than hybrid jute-glass/epoxy and jute/epoxy tubes. The increase in the number of layers from two to six increases the maximum lateral load from 0.53KN to 1.22 KN for jute/epoxy and from 1.35 KN to 3.87 KN for the glass/epoxy tubes. The stacking sequence of the hybrid tubes influenced on the maximum lateral load and the absorbed energy. The maximum load obtained for the six layers jute-glass/epoxy tubes of different staking sequence varies between 1.88 KN to 3.46 KN. Failure mechanisms of the laterally loaded composite tubes were also observed and discussed.