International Journal of

Emerging Research in Management &Technology Research Article May

ISSN: 2278-9359 (Volume-6, Issue-5) 2017
Special Issue of International Conference on Emerging Trends in Science & Engineering (ICETSE–2017)
Conference Held by IEAE India, at Coorg Institute of Technology, Ponnampet, Karnataka, India

Mechanical Behaviour of Carbon/Glass Polymer Hybrid

Composites
Umarfarooq M A1, Shridhar1, Hanamant Yaragudri2, Noumaan Nasir1
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bearys Institute of Technology, Mangaluru – 574 153, Karnataka, India
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, New Horizon College of Engineering, Bengaluru – 580 002, Karnataka, India

Abstract: Fiber reinforced polymer composites are the most preferred materials in the sectors such as aerospace,
automotive etc. due to favorable mechanical properties such as high specific strength and high specific moduli. The
two most widely used fiber reinforcements are glass fiber and carbon fibers. In the present work, mechanical
properties of carbon/glass fiber reinforced polymer hybrid matrix have been investigated. The hybrid composites were
developed by open hand layup method with different fiber ratios of carbon and glass fibers. A total of 4 sets of hybrid
composites were prepared with the varying percentages of glass and carbon fibers. Mechanical properties such as
hardness, tensile strength, and ductility of the hybrid composites were investigated according to ASTM standard and
compared with each other.

Keywords—Hybrid composite, Carbon/Glass fiber, Epoxy.

I. INTRODUCTION
Most of the engineering developments have depended on the advances in the material science. Now the
engineering materials which are preferred are the one with low weight, high strength. Currently the fiber reinforced
polymer composites are such type of materials. In the recent years composite materials are receiving a significant
attention due to favorable mechanical properties. Recently the advancement in the composite materials has introduced a
new class of composite materials known as hybrid composite. Hybrid polymer composites can incorporate two or more
types of fibers. Theses composites have given flexibility to replace one or more costly fibers such as carbon and Kevlar
with much cheaper fibers such as glass or natural fibers and overall reducing the cost of the composites without much
compromising the preferable mechanical properties. In the present study hybrid composite with varying fiber ratios of the
carbon and glass fibers were prepared. Totally 4 sets with different carbon/glass combination were fabricated and
mechanical properties were determined and compared with each other. The present work aims to investigate the effect of
replacement of carbon fibers with the glass fibers and its effect on the properties of the hybrid composite.
M J Shukla et al [2] investigated the mechanical property of Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) and
Glass/Carbon (G/C hybrid) composites at room temperature, in-situ and ex-situ temperature conditions. The results of the
in-situ tests which were carried at +70º C and +100ºC show substantial loss in inter-laminar shear strength (ILSS) for
both the composites when compared to room temperature. It was observed a substantial reduction in ILSS for both the
composites under low temperature ex-situ conditioning. And at -60oC G/C hybrid showed 32.4 % higher ILSS than
GFRP. Therefore it was concluded that G/C hybrid was better choice than conventional GFRP in low temperature
environmental applications.
P.S. Shivakumar Gouda et al [3] investigated the effect of addition of Multi walled Carbon nanotubes
(MWCNT) and Graphene on the mechanical properties of hybrid polymer composite. Hybrid polymer composite with
Glass fiber, Carbon fiber and epoxy polymer with addition of fillers, Graphene and MWCNT were developed. The
results confirm that the composite developed by using graphene nanoparticles showed an enhanced tensile elastic
modulus and hardness, whereas MWCNT has significant effect on the bending modulus and impact behavior. By using
optical microscope the effect of Graphene and MWCNT on delamination, fiber pullout, fiber breakage and voids were
studied and it was observed that the delamination and fiber breakage were minimal by adding Graphene and MWCNT
fillers. The optical microscopic study for the fractured samples reveals a significant increase in the fiber-matrix interface
adhesion whereas decrease in fiber breakage, fiber pullout and debonding.
Jeena Jose Karippal et al [4] studied mechanical properties of hybrid composites made up of
epoxy/glass/nanoclay. The ultrasonication method was used to disperse the nanoclay in the epoxy and hybrid composite
was prepared by hand layup method. The results showed an improvement in UTS, Young’s modulus, flexural strength,
flexural modulus, ILSS, and microhardness of the hybrid composites with increase in nanoclay loading up to 5wt% and
decreased for further loading of nanoclay. With 2wt% nanoclay-dispersion the results showed a marginal increase in
Glass transition temperature (Tg) and degradation in the same with further nanoclay loading. Heitor Luiz Ornaghi, Jr et
al [5] investigated effect of the different volume ratios of the glass and sisal and the different fiber loadings on the
mechanical properties such as flexural and impact and also carried dynamic mechanical analyses (DMTA).The results
revealed an increasing trend in the flexural and impact properties with increase in the glass reinforcement content. A
decrease in the storage and loss modulus was observed with increase in the temperature which was associated with the
softening of the matrix with higher temperature. The storage modulus increased as well shift in the glass transition
towards higher temperatures was observed with the increase in the glass fiber content.

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 Umarfarooq et al., International Journal of Emerging Research in Management &Technology
ISSN: 2278-9359 (Volume-6, Issue-6)
II. EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES
Materials
The reinforcements used for the present investigation are unidirectional glass and carbon fibers. The details of the same
are given are given in table 1.The composites are prepared by using epoxy resin (Araldite AW 106) and the curing is
carried out at room temperature using hardener(HV 953 IN).
Table 1: Specification of the reinforcements
Type of fiber Weight (GSM) Thickness (mm)
Carbon 270 0.35
Glass 220 0.25

Fabrication of composite
The hybrid composites of different fiber ratios of the carbon and glass fibers were prepared. The most commonly used
hand layup method was used to prepare the composites. Then the curing was done under the room temperature. All the
hybrid composites for test were prepared using 40 % epoxy against 60 % reinforcement. A total of 4 sets of hybrid
composites were prepared with the varying percentages of glass and carbon fibers which are enlisted in table 2.
Table 2: Composition of the Composites
Total volume fraction Glass fiber Carbon fiber
Specimen
of epoxy (%) content (%) content (%)
1 40% 60% 0%
2 40 % 40% 20%
3 40 % 20% 40%
4 40 % 0% 60%

Testing of Hybrid Composites

Mechanical properties of the hybrid composite were studied by conducting tension test and hardness test. Tensile test
were conducted according to ASTM 638[6].Tensile tests are carried to investigate the elastic properties such as elastic
modulus and elasticity. Vickers micro hardness tester was used to carry the hardness tests. Hybrid composite were
prepared as thick sheets of 4 mm. To investigate its mechanical properties the individual specimens were machined from
fabricated sheet shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Tensile test specimen

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Tensile Strength
The test results of ultimate tensile strength of hybrid composites with varying fibre ratios of the carbon and glass is
shown in figure 2. It was observed that an increased tensile strength with the increase in the percentage of carbon fibers
and higher tensile strength is noticed in case composite made ofwith 60% of carbon fibers. The fractured specimen after
tension test is shown in figure 3.

Figure 2: Ultimate Tensile Strength of Hybrid Composites Figure 3: Fractured specimen after tension test

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 Umarfarooq et al., International Journal of Emerging Research in Management &Technology
ISSN: 2278-9359 (Volume-6, Issue-6)
Ductility
Figure 4 shows the variation of ductility in terms of percentage elongation in hybrid composites with varying fibre ratios
of the carbon and glass. The results reveals that an increase in the ductility of the hybrid composite with the increasing
carbon fiber percentage and is maximum for the composite made of 60% of carbon fibers.

Figure 4: Ductility of Hybrid Composites

Hardness
The Hardness of the hybrid composites with varying fibre ratios of the carbon and glass is shown in
figure 4. Hardness is the measurement of the material resistance to abrasion. The results reveals that an increase in the
hardness of the hybrid composite with the increasing carbon fiber percentage and is maximum for the composite made of
60% of carbon fibers.

Figure 4: Microhardness of Hybrid Composites

IV. CONCLUSION
In this particular work different sets of hybrid composites with varying fiber ratios of carbon and glass were
prepared by open hand layup method. The mechanical properties such as tensile strength, ductility and hardness were
investigated as per the ASTM standards. After the investigation it was concluded that, tensile strength and ductility of the
hybrid composite increased with increase in the percentage of carbon fibers. It was concluded that composites with 60%
carbon fibers has higher tensile strength as well as ductility. Hardness of the composites were also studied and results
revealed an enhancement in the hardness with increasing carbon fiber content and the hardness of composite with 60%
was found to be higher compared to other composites.

REFERENCES
[1] PS Shivakumar Gouda, et al. "Fracture toughness of glass-carbon (0/90) s fiber reinforced polymer composite–
an experimental and numerical study."Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and
Engineering 10.08 (2011): 671.

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 Umarfarooq et al., International Journal of Emerging Research in Management &Technology
ISSN: 2278-9359 (Volume-6, Issue-6)
[2] Shukla, M. J., Kumar, D. S., Mahato, K. K., Rathore, D. K., Prusty, R. K., & Ray, B. C. (2015). A comparative
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[7] Jagannatha, T. D., and G. Harish. "Mechanical properties of carbon/glass fiber reinforced epoxy hybrid polymer
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