Toughness, flexural, damping and interfacial properties of hybridized GFRE composites with MWCNTs

As the improved damping in fiber-reinforced composites can affect the other mechanical properties, therefore, the aim of this work is to investigate the effect of multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) on the interfacial bond strength, flexural strength and stiffness, toughness and damping properties of hybridized glass-fiber reinforced epoxy (GFRE) composites. Nanophased epoxy resin was used to hybridize unidirectional and quasi-isotropic GFRE composites with [0/+/- 45/90](s), and [90/+/- 45/0](s) stacking sequences. Results from the interfacial characterizations of the hybridized composites showed improvement up to 30% compared to the control laminates. Hybridization of GFRE laminates with MWCNTs leads to decreasing the flexural and storage moduli, increasing flexural strength, toughness, natural frequencies and damping ratio. A high correlation coefficient of 0.9985 was obtained between static flexural and dynamic storage moduli. The highest flexural strength, flexural and storage moduli and natural frequency of quasi-isotropic laminate were observed for [0/+/- 45/90](s), stacking sequence and vice versa for damping ratio. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.