Preparation and low-velocity impact properties of glass fiber-carbon fiber hybrid reinforced PCBT composite laminate

The glass fiber woven fabric-carbon fiber woven fabric/poly(cyclic butylene terephthalate) (GF-CF/PCBT) interlaminated hybrid composite laminates were prepared by vacuum bag assisted hot-press processing from the cyclic butylene terephthalate (CBT) prepregs. Double cantilever beam (DCB) and three-point end notched flexure (3ENF) tests were adopted to estimate the interlaminar performance of the obtained continuous fiber reinforced PCBT composite laminates. Meanwhile, the response of hybrid fiber reinforced PCBT laminates under low-velocity impact was mainly investigated by the tests and Abaqus/Explicit finite element simulation, respectively. The test results show that, despite the excellent interlaminate performance of CF/PCBT composite laminates, CF/PCBT composite laminates are penetrated under the impact energy of 114.3 J due to the brittleness of CF. As a comparison, the GF-CF/PCBT interlaminated hybrid laminates form merely dent on surface. Compared with pure CF reinforced PCBT composite laminates, the impact strength of GF-CF/PCBT interlaminated hybrid laminates with the layer form [CF/GF/CF]₂₅ enhances significantly by 2 times. Simulation results show that stress area in CF is larger than that in GF in the resulted stress nephogram.