Experimental and FEA Studies on Tensile and Flexural Characteristics of Carbon - Kevlar Hybrid Composite

Experimental evaluation of tensile and flexural strength of a hybrid fiber reinforced polymer composite laminates with various stacking sequences is laborious, expensive and requires high time, energy and labor force. Computer based finite element analysis using Ansys provides an easy, inexpensive and speedy process to evaluate the various mechanical strengths of composite materials. In this study, an attempt was made to carry out the finite element analysis to evaluate the tensile and flexural strength of carbon-kevlar hybrid composite with different stacking sequences using Ansys. The experimental validation for best stacking sequence has also been conducted. The analysis results showed that, the sample with stacking sequence of C-K-C-C-K-K-C-C-K-C recorded with highest tensile strength as 285.16 MPa and highest flexural strength of 658.56 MPa. The experimental validation showed that the analysis result closely matches with the experimental result with 1.28% error. This error may be due to the influence of extraneous factors during fabrication.