Impact and Flexural Properties Studies on Carbon Fiber Reinforced Epoxy/Polycarbonate Hybrid Laminates with Different Stacking Sequence

Carbon fiber (CF) hybrid laminates with excellent mechanical properties have attracted great attention. Herein, CF reinforced epoxy/polycarbonate (CF/Epoxy/PC) hybrid laminates are fabricated via laser surface processing and hot-pressing technique. Several mechanical tests, including uniaxial tensile, flexural, and impact, are conducted to assess the effect of stacking sequence on the prepared hybrid laminates. In addition, failure behaviors and morphologies are observed to analyze the interaction mechanism between the two laminates. Experimental results indicate that the tensile properties of hybrid laminates conform to the rules of mixture. The best flexural properties and impact peak force are found in Epoxy-PC hybrid laminates. However, due to the transfer phenomenon of flexural point during the impact process, PC-Epoxy hybrid laminates possess the best impact energy absorption. Furthermore, the introduction of CF/PC laminates greatly mitigates the out-of-plane fracture process of CF/Epoxy laminates during a flexural test. However, its in-of-plane fracture area has a further increase during the impact process, which illustrates the synergetic enhancement ability of hybrid laminates.

Automated summary

CF reinforced epoxy/polycarbonate (CF/Epoxy/PC) hybrid laminates were fabricated and assessed through mechanical tests to analyze their performance and interaction mechanism. Results indicate that stacking sequence has an impact on laminate properties, with PC-Epoxy hybrid laminates showing the best impact energy absorption.