Influence Of Hybridization On The Performance Of Glass Composites Under Low And High Velocity Impact

Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad 500058, India

Adv. Mater. Lett., 2016, 7 (6), pp 491-496

DOI: 10.5185/amlett.2016.6316

Publication Date (Web): May 30, 2016

Copyright © IAAM-VBRI Press

E-mail: rsreddy@dmrl.drdo.in

Abstract

Hybrid composites find applications in many advanced fields that include aerospace and armour due to their high specific strength and high energy absorption capacity. The present study has attempted to develop cost effective E and S2 glass based hybrid composites for armour applications in order to get advantages of both fibres i.e superior impact properties at reduced cost. Three hybrid composites based on E glass and S2 glass in the volume ratios of 75:25, 50:50 and 25:75 were fabricated using epoxy matrix. Low velocity impact (60-110 J energy) experiments using instrumented drop tower on 2 mm thickness laminates show that composites perform better when impacted on E glass strike face than on S2 glass strike face. Hybrid composite made of 25% E glass and 75 % S2 glass (ES 25-75) has shown equal performance to that of 100 % S2 glass/epoxy (S 100) laminate. Ballistic evaluation on 6 mm thick laminates against 7.62 mm mild steel projectile also prove that the performance of hybrid composites increases with increase in S2 glass content and ES 25-75 composite performs similar to S 100 laminate in terms of energy absorption as well as damage volume.

Keywords

Hybrid composites, low velocity impact, ballistic impact, energy absorption, S2 glass