Experimental investigation on influence of Kevlar fiber hybridization on tensile and damping response of Kevlar/glass/epoxy resin composite laminates

This study investigates the tensile and damping behavior of Kevlar/glass/epoxy hybrid laminates. Hybrid Kevlar/glass with epoxy resin composites is fabricated considering different fiber volume fractions in combinations to show the influence of hybridization. Mechanical properties were inspected by an instrumented tensile test machine. A series of vibration tests were conducted to determine dynamic characteristics of the samples. Damping properties are calculated from logarithmic decrement method by using vibration response envelope curve. In addition, effects of fiber angle on natural frequencies were examined using ANSYS. The results show that the hybridization of relatively brittle material S-glass fibers with tough and high performance Kevlar fibers has showed to be highly effective in improving damping capacity of S-glass fiber composite laminates.