MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF HYBRID CARBON FIBER REINFORCED POLYETHYLENE AND EPOXY COMPOSITES

ABSTRACT In this work, a hybrid polyethylene/epoxy combination matrix is reinforced with carbon fiber fabric. The objective is to develop a composite material with better tensile and impact properties. Three ratios of high molecular weight polyethylene powder were used as an additive to the epoxy matrix system. These composite materials were manufactured using hand-layup and vacuum bagging technique. The study carried out here is to find the effect of polyethylene weight fraction on tensile and impact properties of the carbon fabric reinforced epoxy composite material. The results show the tensile strength has been improved by the lowest used ratio of polyethylene additive while, all the hybrid composites exhibit higher tensile ductility. On the other hand, the Izod impact strength shows degradation in impact properties for the hybrid composites. Several suggestions are made about ways to improve the behavior of such materials

Mechanical properties of hybrid carbon fiber reinforced polyethylene and epoxy composites

In this work, a hybrid polyethylene/epoxy combination matrix is reinforced with carbon fiber fabric. The objective is to develop a composite material with better tensile and impact properties. Three ratios of high molecular weight polyethylene powder were used as an additive to the epoxy matrix system. These composite materials were manufactured using hand-layup and vacuum bagging technique. The study carried out here is to find the effect of polyethylene weight fraction on tensile and impact properties of the carbon fabric reinforced epoxy composite material. The results show the tensile strength has been improved by the lowest used ratio of polyethylene additive while, all the hybrid composites exhibit higher tensile ductility. On the other hand, the Izod impact strength shows degradation in impact properties for the hybrid composites. Several suggestions are made about ways to improve the behavior of such materials