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Efforts to reduce manufacturing cost and negative environmental impacts have seen the mixture of natural fibre with synthetic fibre in composite structures. However, there are limited studies on the notch effect and fibre orientation on mechanical properties of hybrid fibre metal laminate (FML). In this study, tensile properties of FML with notch and different fibre orientation were investigated. The hybrid FML incorporated with kenaf fibre at the middle layer was compared with FML with three layers of E-glass fibre. Kenaf fibre and E-glass fibre used were in plain woven form. The FML in 2/1 configuration was manufactured through hot press manufacturing method to bond layers of annealed aluminium 5052 to the composite. Tensile test was conducted in a quasi-static manner according to ASTM E8. The results showed FML with three layers of glass fibre exhibited higher tensile strength compared with hybrid FML. However, the introduction of kenaf fibre in hybrid FML reduces the notch and fibre orientation sensitivity compared with glass fibre reinforced FML. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding of composite bolted joint behaviour is vital since it has been widely used in application involving mechanically fastened joints. The advent of advanced technology had led to the use of hybrid composite to reduce the usage of non-environment friendly material such as synthetic fibre. This current study aims to investigate the effect of geometric parameters on the failure load of bolted joint hybrid composite laminate. Composite laminates were fabricated using hot press moulding compression method and they were cut according to the appropriate dimension with the width/diameter (W/D) and edge-distance/diameter (EJD) ratio of 3, 4, 5 and 6. The hole diameter of each composite laminate was fixed at 6 mm. Bolted joint tests were conducted in accordance to ASTM D5961 using the Universal Testing Machine and several failure modes were identified. The results concluded geometric parameters significantly affect both failure load and failure mode of hybrid composites. The increase in W/D and E/D ratio increase the load carrying capability of the laminate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]