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Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8928–8937 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

ICAAMM-2016

Investigation On Mechanical Behavior Of Woven Fabric

Glass/Kevlar Hybrid Composite Laminates Made Of Varying Fibre
Inplane Orientation And Stacking Sequence
Srivathsan Aa*, B Vijayaramb, Dr.R.Rameshc, Gokuldassd
a*
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Venkateswara College Of Engineering, Sriperambadur - 602117, India
b
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Venkateswara College Of Engineering, Sriperambadur - 602117, India
c
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Venkateswara College Of Engineering, Sriperambadur - 602117, India
d
Research Scholar, Arulmigu Meenakshi Amman College of Engineering, Kanchipuram, India

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Abstract

Over the years, woven synthetic fibres have revolutionized Automobile and Marine industries. Although each fibre has its own
merits and demerits, to tailor the intermediate properties in terms of strength and modulus, synthetic fibre reinforced polymers
are considered for hybridization. In this study, synthetic woven fabric Kevlar49 and E-Glass of equal rowing diameter are
fabricated into fibre reinforced polymers by Hand Layup Process and cured by Hydraulic Compression Maudling. The static
mechanical behavior of these laminates is evaluated by determining the Tensile, Flexural and Interlaminar Shear Properties in
accordance to ASTM standards. The laminates are prepared into various stacking sequence in terms of the basic symmetric, basic
asymmetric and accumulated layering, also controlled with varying the alternative in-plane fibre orientation. The total fibre to
matrix volume fraction of these laminates are maintained at 50%(Vf=0.5). The inference of this study would reveal the
characteristic behavior of hybrid laminates. The results were compared and supported by morphology of the tested specimen
under Scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

© 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the Committee Members of International Conference on Advancements in
Aeromechanical Materials for Manufacturing (ICAAMM-2016).

Keywords: Woven fabric fibre orientation; Stacking sequence; Fibre modulus and strength; Hybridization; Axial and transverse loading
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
* Srivasthsan A a. Tel.: (+91)- 8056283129.

E-mail address: radha_anandhan@yahoo.co.in

2214-7853 © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the Committee Members of International Conference on Advancements in Aeromechanical
Materials for Manufacturing (ICAAMM-2016).
 8929 Srivathsan et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8928–8937

1. Introduction
Composite material consists of matrix reinforced with fibres. Fibres are an eminent part of the fibre reinforced
polymer, they have the greatest volume fraction in FRP [1]. Polymers reinforced with synthetic fibre have been
increasingly used in the field of aviation, automobile and defense sectors because of the high mechanical strength
and stiffness, in comparison with other previously developed materials [2-6].

Matrix phase in the composites serve 2 important functions i.e., holds fibrous phase in the desired location
and orientation, and also under an applied force, it reforms and distributes the force to the high modulus fibre
functions [7].

To achieve the intermediate properties of these synthetic woven fabrics, hybridization of these fabrics comes
into play. Hybridization is used in order to tailor the material to the exact needs under the design [8]. Due to the
unique balance in the mechanical and chemical properties, epoxy resin is used in these hybrid composition [9]. The
epoxy based woven fabric are viscoelastic in nature [Murugan et al (2014)][10]. Synthetic woven fabrics are
considered as smarter materials in recent times due to their robust mechanical properties and resistance over
moisture absorbance than that of natural woven fabrics.

Selection of these materials in hybridization of synthetic woven fabrics should be done in a judicious way
since the composite materials have their own sphere of applications and limitations. Hybrid woven fabrics with E-
glass, carbon and aramids such as Kevlar fibres are also a fine way to combine the best characteristics of those fibres
into a unique material [11-13].

Sabeel and Vijayarangan (2008) studied the effect of stacking sequence on tensile, flexural and interlaminar
shear strength properties of woven jute/glass fabric and reported that there was an enhancement in the properties of
resultant hybrid and layering sequence significantly affecting the transverse loading test of flexural and interlaminar
shear stress [14]. Kretsis (1987) reviewed the effect of stacking sequence on tensile, flexural and shear property of
carbon/glass with unidirectional plies. Saka et al studied tensile behavior of epoxy based unidirectional synthetic
hybrid composites [15].

Gururaja et al [16] conducted an experiment on evaluating the ILSS of hybrid composites of cross ply fibre
orientation [00,900] and angle ply fibre orientation [-450,450] separately. Ramesh et al tested the effect of stacking
sequence in flexural property of carbon/jute fibre and reported that there is a significant improvement in flexural and
ILSS property in double fibre layering control over single fibre layering [17].

From this literature review, it reveals that the existence of hybrid effects is less concentrated because of the
varied results. This study aims to elaborate on these results by conducting experiments in the mechanical behavior
over tensile, flexural and shear nature of the hybrid composites reinforced by E-glass and Kevlar49 fibres with
varying stacking sequence along with the control of in plane alternative fibre orientation and these results are
supported with SEM images.

2. Fabrication Of The Hybrid Composite Laminate Using Hand Layup Method

Hand layup technique is followed for the fabrication of composite laminate. E-Glass fabric and Kevlar49 of
areal density 344 gsm and 244 gsm were used as the reinforcement. Epoxy resin BR111 premixed and homogenized
with hardener RH109 in the ratio 10:1 by volume was used as matrix. For the present investigation, hybrids of
Glass/Kevlar of 8 layers were fabricated. There were three stacking sequences are considered namely basic
symmetric with reference to the neutral axis[GG-KK-GG-KK] basic asymmetric with reference to the neutral
axis[GG-KK-GG-KK] and accumulated layering sequences[GG-GG-KK-KK]. There are two forms of fiber
orientations, [(00,900)/(00,900)]4s and[(-450,450)/(00,900)]4s by which the laminates were fabricated. The schematic
diagrams of the six specimens are shown in Fig 1 & 2.
 8930 Srivathsan et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8928–8937

GG-KK-KK-GG GG-KK-GG-KK GG-GG-KK-KK

Fig 1: Schematic diagram shows the in plane fibre orientation– [(00,900)/(00,900)]4S for all the sequences

GG-KK-KK-GG GG-KK-GG-KK GG-GG-KK-KK

Fig 2: Schematic diagram shows the in plane fibre orientation– [(-450,45 0) /(00,900)]4S for all the sequences

3. Experimental Procedure

3.1. Tensile testing

Specimens for tension test were carefully cut from the laminate using diamond wheel saw and finished to
the accurate size using emery paper. The experiment setup of the test is shown in Fig 3.
Tests were conducted on servo hydraulic universal testing machine Instron3382 as per ASTM D3039 standard [18].
The size of the specimen is 250x25xt mm3. A rate of loading of 5mm/min was used for testing. For each specimen,
five identical samples were tested and average result was obtained.

Fig 3: Image showing Tensile Test conducted for Kevlar49/E-Glass Hybrid composite specimen on Universal Testing Machine.

3.2. Flexural Testing

The flexural testing was performed as per ASTM D790 for all samples with the recommended span to
depth ratio of 16:1 [19]. The size of the specimen is 127x12.5xt mm3. The flexural tests were conducted on the
Instron 3365 with a feed rate of 2mm/min. Tests were conducted on samples with E-Glass fabric warp yarns
oriented in the loading direction. The experiment setup of the test is shown in Fig 4. The flexural stress in a three
point bending test is given by FH= (3PmaxL)/(bh2) where Pmax is the maximum load at failure (N), L is the span (mm),
b and h is the width and thickness of the specimen (mm), respectively. The flexural modulus is calculated from the
slope of the initial portion of the load-deflection curve. Flexural modulus is given by E = (mL3)/(4bh3), where ‘m’ is
the initial slope of the load deflection curve. For each stacking sequence, five specimens are tested and average
result is obtained.
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Fig 4: Image showing Flexural Test conducted for Kevlar49/E-Glass Hybrid composite specimen on INSTRON 3365.

3.3. Interlaminar Shear Testing

Interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) testing was conducted on servo hydraulic universal testing machine
Instron3382 using ILSS test fixture in accordance with ASTM D2344 [20]. The experiment setup is shown in Fig5.
The short beam strength test was conducted to evaluate interlaminar shear strength of the laminates. The size of the
specimen is 40x10xt mm3. The force applied at the time of failure was recorded and the stresses were determined
using the equation SH = (0.75PB)/(bh), where SH is the interlaminar shear strength (N/mm2), PB is the breaking load
(N), b and h are width and depth of the specimen (mm).

Fig 5: Image shows the experiment setup of short beam strength from which the interlaminar shear strength is calculated.

4. Results and Discussions

4.1. Tensile Behavior

The graphs Fig 6 & 7 reveals the variation in the tensile characteristics between all the sequences. For the
similar successive layer fibre inplane orientation [(00,900)/(00,900)]4s, the sequence in which the high modulus
Kevlar layered in the core region (GG-KK-KK-GG), offered restriction to axial strain at elastic region. Whereas, the
other sequence plied with alternative levels of fibre modulus (GG-KK-GG-KK) exhibited relatively less modulus.
The similar trend was observed for the other form of orientation of alternate successive layering by [(-450,450
)/(00,900)]4s in terms of modulus and strength of the tensile load applied. It is observed that the modulus and strength
of hybrid laminate of this form of orientation for all sequences preferred is observed to be less when compared with
 8932 Srivathsan et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8928–8937

similar successive layer fibre orientation [(00,900)/(00,900)]4s. This provides the evidence that the combined effect of
collective aligned orientation is beneficial since, the direction of load applied and the direction of alignment of fibre
orientation are the same.

Fig 6: Tensile Modulus of the Laminates

Thus we infer that the core strength of fibres in the laminate directly influences the tensile performance
[Munikenche Gowda et al, 1999]. However, the special accumulated layering (GG-GG-KK-KK) with the same core
strength of the fibres as the sequence plied with alternative plies of fibre modulus showed a relatively poor
performance than the basic sequence. The arrangement of combined low modulus followed by combined high
modulus of fibre under the action of axial loading causes this trend [8] [22]. The variation in elastic strain causes the
variation in elastic modulus of Kevlar49/ E-glass hybrid. The load applied by the progressive pull is equally shared
by each layer resulted in a marginal difference in the tensile strength at the plastic region for the given orientation of
the sequence [14].

Fig 7.1 Fig 7.2 Fig 7.3

Fig 7: Axial Load -Deflection Diagrams (Tensile), (7.1) laminates 1A&1B; (7.2) laminates 2A&2B and (7.3) laminates 3A&3B.
 8933 Srivathsan et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8928–8937

4.2 Flexural Behaviour

4.2.1 Basic layering sequence
The bar graph Fig 8 reveals the flexural modulus of all types of hybrid laminates with fibre inplane orientation.

Fig 8: Flexural Modulus of the Laminates

Fig 9.1 Fig 9.2 Fig 9.3

Fig 9: Load Displacement Diagrams (Flexural), (9.1) laminates 1A&1B; (9.2) laminates 2A&2B and (9.3) laminates 3A&3B.
 8934 Srivathsan et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8928–8937

Fig 9.4: SEM image of Tensile Fractured Surface of Laminate (KEVLAR) under Flexural Load (3B) (GG-GG-KK-KK) [(00,900) /(-450,450)] 4s
showing greater pull out of the fibre

The flexural modulus of hybrid laminates of sequence 1 (GG-KK-KK-GG) is 80.94% that of the flexural modulus of
sequence 2 (GG-KK-GG-KK) in similar successive fibre orientation. This is because in sequence 2 has one of the
outermost layers as high modulus Kevlar [Park and Jang et al. (1999) [24].

Zhang et al also reported increased flexural property when two carbon fibres are placed at the tensile side [28]. From
the load displacement diagram Fig 9, It is also inferred that flexural strength of 2A (GG-KK-KK-GG) is 126% of
that of 1A (GG-KK-GG-KK).

There was a similar trend in flexural modulus and flexural strength in comparison between 1B (GG-KK-KK-GG)
and 2B (GG-KK-GG-KK) with fibre inplane orientation of alternate layer by [(-450,450)/(00,900)]4s. [27]. However,
in comparison with similar successive orientation there is a huge fall of the elastic modulus for both the basic
sequences. When the orientation is alternately controlled with cross ply and angular ply the load transfer is increased
fibre matrix orientation. The flexural strength in the plastic region of the respective stacking sequence of the basic
layering of the alternately controlled orientation is greater than that of similar successive orientation. This is because
the combined exposed area of fibre to the transverse loading is higher for [(-450,450)/(00,900)]4s [T.G Loganathan et
al.(2008)][25].

4.2.2 Accumulated Layering

The interesting finding is that on a condition of transverse loading, the similar successive orientation of
[(00,900)/(00,900)]4s for accumulated sequence layering (GG-GG-KK-KK) shows a greater flexural modulus
(16.97Gpa) and flexural strength (494.12Mpa) in comparison with the other sequences. The force load direction on
the transverse loading condition providing a compressive layered low modulus glass and tensile layered high
modulus Kevlar. But for the same sequence in the other form of orientation the flexural strength (297.55Mpa) and
modulus (7.68Gpa) drops down heavily and in comparison to all sequence across all orientation.

The SEM images, the morphology studied for the poorly performed laminate (3B) (GG-GG-KK-KK)
[(00,900)/(-450,450)]4s, it is noted that the compressive load carrying glass provides an abrupt gross rupture in its
orientation of (-450,450) whereas, in the same specimen the tensile load carrying Kevlar attains fracture after a
tremendous pull out in its orientation (00,900). This morphology supports the results attained.
 8935 Srivathsan et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8928–8937

Fig 9.5: SEM image of Fractured Surface of Laminate (Glass Compression) under Flexural Load (3B) (GG-GG-KK-KK) [(00,900) / (-450,450)] 4s

4.3 Interlaminar shear strength

4.3.1 Basic layering

The load displacement graphs of interlaminar shear testing for the basic layering are shown in the figure 10
& 11. The trends are very similar to that of the flexural test. The interlaminar shear strength of S2(GG-KK-GG-KK)
is 114% of that as S1(GG-KK-KK-GG) in [(00,900)/(00,900)]4s fibre orientation.

Comparison trend between the sequences with alternative cross ply and angle ply orientation are also the
same. It is reported that the stress distribution in the transverse loading varies with layer [16].

4.3.2 Accumulated Layering

In the case of accumulated layering the successive orientation with cross ply arrangement shows the
maximum shear strength of 340.49 MPa. However, for the same sequence the other form of orientation shows the
poorest strength of 190.6 MPa.

The maximum value of ILSS of the laminate is way lesser than that of the shear strength of aramid, Kevlar.
[Mathews et al] [26]. Vijayrangan et al has also reported the same and concluded that this might be because of the
fact that epoxy possesses higher tensile strength than that of the polymer and better adhesion of epoxy with glass
fibres. The morphology of ILSS is also similar to that of the flexural testing.

Fig 10: Interlaminar Shear strength of the Laminates

 8936 Srivathsan et al / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8928–8937

Fig 11.1 Fig 11.2 Fig 11.3

Fig 11: Load- Deflection Diagrams (ILSS), (11.1) laminates 1A&1B; (11.2) laminates 2A&2B and (11.3) laminates 3A&3B.

5. Conclusion

The stacking sequence and alternative inplane orientation influences the fundamental behavior of E-
glass/Kevlar49 hybrid at the axial, flexural and shear loading conditions (Fig.11).

• There is an effect of stacking sequence in Tensile modulus of the sample, but the tensile strength does not
vary with respect to the sequence since the progressive load shared by each layer is same in all cases.
• The aligned fibre orientation with respect to the applied axial load promotes the tensile behavior of the
composite. There is a significant change in tensile behavior with change in inplane fibre orientation.
• The transverse loading test of flexural and Interlaminar Shear Strength results follow the same trend for all
the laminates.
• It is inferred that, the outermost layers subjected to tensile and compression stress governs the elastic
properties in transverse loading conditions.
• The change in alternative orientation provides a greater combined exposed area for the transverse loading
in Flexural and ILSS. Thus, there is an increase in Flexural strength and ILSS for the alterative successive
layer orientation. [(-450,450)/(00,900)].
• In the case of accumulated layering subjected to transverse loading, the extremities are found. The modulus
and strength in terms of transverse loading for bending and shear is found to be greatest for the successive
similar orientation [(00,900)/(00,900)] and lowest for alternative similar orientation [(-450,450)/(00,900)] even
when compared with all other sequences.

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