Mechanical Characterization of Glass-Basalt Hybrid Composites with Different Fiber Weight Fraction

In recent years, many attempts have been made to make a composite either fully or partially from natural fiber as a part of sustainable development, which has superior strength compared to other natural fibers like flax, sisal, bamboo, and banana leaves. Basalt fiber is one of the naturally available mineral fibers that can overcome the issue of the low mechanical strength of natural fibers. The objective of this research is to determine the effect of hybridization on glass fiber composites with different weight fractions of basalt fiber. Composite laminates were made using the hand lay-up method from plain bidirectional glass fiber and plain bidirectional basalt fiber with epoxy as the thermosetting matrix material. Basalt fiber weight fraction varied to ۰%, ۲۶%, ۵۴%, ۸۴%, and ۱۰۰% during the development of different laminates, and their density and mechanical characterizations were investigated using ASTM standards. A density test was carried out to evaluate the specific strength of different laminates. To evaluate the effects of different fiber weight fractions on the mechanical characteristics of the composite, tensile, flexural, and impact tests were carried out. It was observed that, compared to non-hybrid composites, hybrid composites showed superior properties in flexural, tensile, and impact tests. The results presented in this study show that in hybrid composites, different fiber weight fractions play a crucial role in the properties of the hybrid composite. one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to see if there were any statistically significant differences between the measured mechanical properties. As one of the major benefits of composites is their high ratio of strength to weight, a comparison of specific properties is carried out, and the positive effect of hybridization was observed.

Keywords:

Hand layup , Glass/Basalt fiber , Hybrid composite , characterization , Specific properties