Fracture behaviour of p-Aramid and ultra high molecular weight polyethylene based hybrid composite

Abstract Damage in the form of delamination and debonding are the most common failure modes observed in polymeric composites used for high end structural applications. The principal aim of this work is to investigate the fracture behaviour of Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) and p-aramid based hybrid composite. In this work, an optimized processing condition based on highest flexural strength has been evaluated using Box-Behken design of experiment method to fabricate the hybrid composite. Based on most optimized processing conditions process variable such as 14.2 MPa for pressure, 120 o C for temperature and 12.7 minutes for time, compression moulded hybrid composites were prepared and the same were studied in detail for their interlaminar fracture toughness. In the present study, a finite notch radius that varied from 110 – 750 µm has been employed. The fracture toughness/resistance (K 1c ) of the material has been evaluated and analyzed by investigating the influence of varying notch root radii. The results obtained from the analysis showed that the critical notch root radius of the hybrid composite is around 340 µm. The load displacement data of three point bend test with varied crack length are used to evaluate plain strain fracture toughness (K 1c ). The K 1c has been found 1.5 MPa√m for the K Q values derived from specimens with a/W of 0.45-0.55.