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The inferior delamination resistance and out‐of‐plane performance of fiber metal laminates (FMLs) are of serious concerns. This work employs two modification methods, namely metal surface's chemical pre‐treatment and nano Al2O3 embedded interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) formation for improving the delamination resistance of aluminum and glass fiber‐reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite‐based FMLs. The synergetic effect of the two modification techniques resulted in high degrees of improvement in delamination resistance that were ~28% for critical strain energy release rate during mode‐I interlaminar fracture toughness (ILFT), that is (GIC) and ~37% for GIIC. Simultaneously, the flexural strength, tensile strength, and interlaminar shear strength improved by ~23%, ~17%, and ~24%, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and surface energy measurement studies showed that the chemical pre‐treatment significantly influenced the surface morphology, surface roughness, and surface energy responses of aluminum, respectively. Fractographic study validated the effect of modification methods on the failure behavior under various testing modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Composite components' fabrication generates vast amounts of fiber wastes. This research suggests using short carbon fibers (SCFs) as secondary reinforcement in glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite for cryogenic application. The SCFs (0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 wt%) were embedded in GFRP composites. Flexural test was performed to assess the integrity and durability of composites at in‐situ cryogenic temperature (CT), and after ex‐situ cryo‐aging in liquid nitrogen for various time intervals (0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 h). The composite with 0.1 wt% of SCFs showed the highest enhancement in flexural performance in all testing conditions, ∼16% at Room Temperature (RT), ∼12% at Cryogenic Temperature (CT, and between 13% and 39% after cryo‐aging. Composites with SCFs retained their strength at CT and after cryo‐aging, suggesting that the waste fibers could be economically reused and preferred over other expensive nanofillers as secondary reinforcements in GFRP composites for cryogenic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, graphene oxide (GO) was grafted on carbon fibre (CF) surface using anodic and cathodic electrophoretic deposition (EPD). Twelve-layer carbon fibre–reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite laminates were fabricated using the modified CFs. Morphology study of modified CFs revealed that cathodic EPD has resulted in dense and uniform deposition of nanofiller. Flexural and Short Beam Shear (SBS) tests were conducted to evaluate their flexural and interlaminar properties. Both anodic and cathodic CFRP composites have shown better mechanical performance than neat CFRP composite, with cathodic CFRP composite showing the best performance due to uniform deposition of nanofiller. Cathodic CFRP composite has shown an improvement of 7.57% and 16.12% in flexural and ILSS responses, respectively, with respect to neat CFRP composite. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and fractography analysis using scanning electron microscope (SEM) were carried out to know the thermal behaviour and failure mechanism of all fabricated composites, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing recycled or short fibers for making useful engineering composite component is a present research trend and requirement. Current research work explicates the effect of short carbon fibers (SCF) used as secondary reinforcement in woven glass/epoxy hybrid composites and evaluates their mechanical properties. Different concentrations (0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 wt%) of SCF were incorporated to assess the tensile, flexural, and interlaminar fracture toughness (Mode I and II) of the resulted composites. Composites with 0.1 wt% SCF showed 29.02% and 16.08% increment in the tensile and flexural strength, respectively. For Mode I and Mode II interlaminar fracture toughness tests, 0.1 wt% SCF‐GE samples showed the highest strain energy release rate. Double cantilever beam specimens were used for Mode I testing and an improvement of 13.49% in GIC value was observed. End‐notched flexure method was used for the Mode II tests, and 0.1 wt% SCF‐GE samples showed 20.45% increase in GIIC values. This paper explains the various reasons and mechanisms for obtaining such results. Scanning electron microscopy of the fractured surfaces was carried out to perceive the diverse failure micro‐mechanisms that could have been involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is focused on the evaluation of the tensile performance of glass/carbon inter‐ply hybrid fiber‐reinforced polymer composites at different combinations of temperatures and loading speeds. With an increase in the number of carbon/epoxy (CE) ply in glass/epoxy (GE) composites, some of the tensile properties as tensile modulus, strain at failure, and difference of strain at failure of different fibers are enhanced. Further, the change in the stacking sequence of the CE ply at a particular hybrid ratio alters the tensile properties as well as the nature of failure. Placing a CE ply in place of GE ply at the center in the GE composite resulted in hybrid composite (G2C1G2) that imparts pseudo‐ductility as well as hybrid effect in the composite. On the other hand, replacing a GE ply with CE at one end (C1G4) and both ends (C1G3C1) imparted improved strain at failure and positive hybrid effect in the composites. The tensile modulus of G2C1G2 outstrips the modulus of CE and GE by 12.05% and 65.95% at a loading speed of 0.1 mm/min and a temperature of 110°C. Fractography analysis of neat as well as hybrid composites was done to analyze the fracture mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]