Arabian Journal For Science And Engineering, pp.1-12, 2020 (SCI-Expanded)
The mechanical behavior of hybrid composite laminates under varying strain rates and temperatures was investigated in this
study. The hybrid composite laminate is constituted as a sequential stacking sequence of plain-woven carbon-fiber-reinforced
epoxy (CFRE) and plain-woven glass-fiber-reinforced epoxy (GFRE) laminates. Vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding
(VARTM) process was used to fabricate the composite laminates. Hybrid composite laminates (HCGFRE) were tested under
four different strain rates (0.05 min−1, 0.5 min−1, 2.5 min−1, 5 min−1) and three different temperatures (RT, 60 °C, 100 °C).
Microstructure analysis was performed to observe the voids, fiber delamination and matrix failure occurring in the composite
laminate. In numerical analyses, continuum damage mechanics material model (MAT 58) was utilized in LS-DYNA® explicit
finite element program to simulate the mechanical properties of CFRE, GFRE and HCGFRE laminates. It was determined that
the tensile strength of all composite laminates is increasing by increasing the strain rates in all temperatures. The continuous
damage mechanics material model (MAT 58) was found to be suitable for simulating woven composite laminate under
different strain rates and temperatures. In microstructural study, it was not observed significant changes in the microstructure
of composite laminates by changing strain rates.