Improvement of mechanical properties of hybrid composites through interply rearrangement of glass and carbon woven fabrics for marine application

Glass fiber reinforced polymer composites (GFRPC) possess low strength in comparison to carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites (CFRPC). The degradation of the mechanical properties of seawater aged GFRPC is more than that of CFRPC. However, CFRPC is not commercially viable for all type of applications due to its high cost. Therefore, there is a need to hybridize carbon fiber with glass fiber to overcome the weakness of glass fiber reinforced polymer composites for marine application. In this investigation, there are five types of composites were considered, i.e., plain glass ([G](s)), plain carbon ([C](s)), [G(3)C(2)](s), [G(2)C(2)G](s) and [GCG(2)C](s) type of hybrid composites. The composites were seawater aged for 90 days. The results revealed that the tensile strength of seawater aged [GCG(2)C](s) type hybrid composite was improved by 14% as compared to plain GFRPC. The flexural strength and modulus of seawater aged [GCG(2)C](s) type hybrid composite were enhanced by 43% and 64% respectively in comparison to plain GFRPC. However, the impact strength of seawater aged [GCG(2)C](s) type hybrid composites was reduced by 44.5% as compared to plain GFRPC. Furthermore, the structure-properties co relationship was established from field emission scanning electron microscopy images.