International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Mechanical Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmecsci

Mechanical properties of hybrid composites reinforced by carbon and

basalt fibers
Guangyong Sun a,b,c, Shaowei Tong a, Dongdong Chen a, Zhihui Gong a,∗, Qing Li b
a
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacture for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
b
School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
c
State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: In virtue of higher thermal resistance, superior ductility, and lower cost than carbon fiber, basalt fiber has at-
Carbon fiber tracted extensive attention recently to be an alternative to reinforcement materials. Nevertheless, relatively fewer
Basalt fiber works have been reported on the mechanical properties of such fibers and their hybrid forms with other fibers
Hybrid composite
available on the market. In this study, mechanical properties of carbon/basalt fiber reinforced epoxy hybrid
Mechanical properties
composite were investigated through experimental, analytical and numerical methods. Seven symmetric com-
Finite element modeling
Damage mechanism posite laminates with different hybrid ratios and stacking sequences were fabricated by the vacuum assisted
resin transfer molding (VARTM) technology and tested under tensile and bending loads, respectively. The test
results showed that the stacking sequences had an evident influence on strength and flexural modulus, but less
influence on tensile modulus. Tensile properties extracted from the experimental data exhibited good agreement
with the results obtained from the analytical model. Further, the finite element analysis (FEA) was carried out
in ABAQUS/Explicit through developing a VUMAT subroutine program to investigate the flexural properties in
detail. The numerical simulation and experimental tests show good correlation for the flexural modulus. A mod-
ified analytical model was derived for predicting flexural strength by comparing with the FEA and experimental
results. Both analytical model and numerical results are validated against the experimental results. In this study,
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study on the failed specimens revealed that use of ductile basalt fiber may
to a considerable extent prevent cracks from propagation across the thickness and alter the failure modes from a
no-kink pattern, commonly seen in pure carbon composites, to a kink band pattern. This indicated that the failure
resistance of pure carbon fiber composites was improved after inserting basalt fiber layers.

1. Introduction
Carbon fiber reinforced composite has been commonly used in high-
end structures in aerospace, naval, wind energy and transportation,
which is attributable to its extraordinary specific strength/stiffness, low
density and good fatigue resistance. Nevertheless, its inherent brittle-
ness and high cost somewhat obstruct the more extensive applications
in industry, such as in mid/low-end automobile such as electric vehicles
[1,2]. Considering each material has its own characteristics and inherent
limitations relative to other materials [3,4], hybrid structures that con-
sist of more than one type of reinforcement fibers in a single matrix have
been proposed to alleviate the weakness of single composite; and make
these materials be of relatively lower cost and better balanced perfor-
mance. Further, the methods of hybridization provide us with flexibility
to tailor certain mechanical properties, e.g. strength, stiffness and tough-
ness. Such a hybrid effect was first highlighted by Hayashi in 1972 [5],
who found that the failure strain of unidirectional carbon/glass compos-
ites was 40% higher than that of carbon fiber composite. Thus far there
has been significant work conducted to investigate the mechanical prop-
erties of hybrid composites; in particular for achieving positive hybrid
efforts by bringing tough fibers with brittle fiber to reinforce composites
[6,7].
In light of the aforementioned facts, combining the carbon fiber with
other high elongation fibers, such as glass fiber, have been extensively
explored to overcome the drawbacks and make full use of the advantage
of different types of fibers [8–12]. As a relatively newer class of rein-
forcement materials, basalt fiber has received increasing attention for
its excellent physical and mechanical properties, such as good sound
insulation, high heat resistance, strong chemical resistance and low
water absorption [13]. Basalt fiber, extruded continuously from high

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: gzhaa@163.com (Z. Gong).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2018.08.007
Received 8 May 2018; Received in revised form 6 July 2018; Accepted 10 August 2018
Available online 12 August 2018
0020-7403/© 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
G. Sun et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651

temperature melting basalt stones which is the most abundant rock type Table 1
in the earth’s crust, has the advantage of more ecofriendly, greener and Configurational details and designation of the tested composite laminates.
lower cost [14]. For this reason, basalt fiber is considered to be an alter- Name Laminate code Stacking sequences Hybrid ratio
native to glass fiber for their similar mechanical properties and wider
availability. From mechanical perspective, Mingchao et al. [15] found C [C]8 1:0
that the interface formed in between basalt fiber and epoxy resin was
CB1 [C3 B]s 3:1
better than that between glass fiber and epoxy resin. Czigány et al.
[16] also concluded that the overall mechanical properties of continu- CB2 [C2 B2 ]s 2:2
ous basalt fibers were fairly similar to those of glass fibers, whereas the
CB3 [B2 C2 ]s 2:2
production cost of basalt fibers was only half of that due to the simplic-
ity of the Junkers production technology. For this reason, introduction CB4 [BCBC]s 2:2
of basalt fibers into carbon fiber composites will lower the costs with CB5 [CB3 ]s 1:3
comparable or even better mechanical properties in comparison with
B [B]8 0:1
carbon/glass hybrid composite.
Nevertheless, limited studies have been reported to explore the me-
chanical properties of carbon/basalt hybrid composites to date [17–20].
There exist some significant research issues. First, while some analytical 2. Experimental procedure
models have been proposed for predicting tensile behaviors of the hybrid
composites [21,22], relatively little research data have been available on 2.1. Materials
the tensile properties of carbon/basalt hybrid composites to date. More-
over, there is noticeable difference between the test results and analyti- In this study, carbon plain weave fabric (T300, 3K Tow, w-3011)
cal rule of mixtures (ROM) in practice [1,23]. Second, flexural properties supplied by Weihai Guangwei Composites Company and basalt plain
are often measured in terms of flexural modulus and flexural strength weave fabric (BR180-112) supplied by Sichuan Aerospace Tuoxin Basalt
which are most commonly determined by a three-point bending test. Industrial Company were used as the reinforcements for the hybrid com-
Under bending condition, the upper layers will be in compression and posites, which have the areal weights of 198 g/m2 and 188 g/m2 , re-
the lower layers in tension to different extent, which introduces inter- spectively. The resin system consists of EP0LAM 5015 (epoxy resin) and
laminar shear, potentially leading to delamination across the thickness. EP0LAM 5014 (hardener), which were provided by An Ellsworth Adhe-
All these three basic failure modes can occur in a specimen, implying sives Company and the corresponding volume fraction of the resin-to-
that the failure modes are much more complicated under the bending hardener was 3:1.
load [9]. Thus it is difficult to clarify the effect of multiple types of fail-
ure modes on load bearing capacity of the hybrid composites. Third, the
2.2. Fabrication of composite laminates
flexural modulus is determined by the slope of strain-stress curve in the
initial stage, in which no failures occur and it can be predicted reason-
All the composite laminates were fabricated by VARTM, as illus-
ably well by a simple rule of mixtures or the classical laminate theory
trated in Fig. 1. The VARTM process can be depicted by the following
[2]. However, the flexural strength may be affected by many factors,
five steps. First, the plain woven fabrics were cut according to proper
such as initial failure due to shear, particularly in the hybrid compos-
size and then placed on the plane mold. Second, the release film for re-
ites, where the stress gradients can be rather complex due to the differ-
moving laminates and the distribution medium for resin flowing quickly
ent stiffnesses between the layers [2]. In order to predict the bending
were placed in corresponding positions respectively. Third, sealing the
strength of hybrid composites, Zhang et al. [24] proposed a simplified
mold with the vacuum bag by sealant tape and switch on the vacuum
analysis model for carbon/glass hybrid composites under bending load.
pump to form a negative pressure. Fourth, the resin was injected un-
It was found that the trend of analytical solutions was fairly consistent
der a constant negative pressure of −0.1 MPa until the preform layer
with experimental results. Further, considering the complicated stress
was infiltrated sufficiently. Finally, the composite laminates, which had
condition in bending, finite element analysis (FEA) has been used to
formed a certain thickness under atmospheric pressure, were cured at
predict the flexural properties and has proven promising for simulating
ambient temperature for 27 h before cutting for tests.
the mechanical behavior of composite laminates and understanding the
Seven different composite sheets were obtained through the above-
failure mechanism [9,25].
mentioned VARTM process. As summarized in Table 1, five different
In this work, the woven basalt fiber and carbon fiber were selected
types of composites laminates that included C, CB1, CB2, CB5, B (the
to make the reinforcement materials and epoxy resin to be the ma-
same structure, but in different hybrid ratio) and three different types
trix for the hybrid composite laminates. The specimens with different
of composites laminates that included CB2, CB3, CB4 (the same hybrid
lamination structures were all fabricated by the vacuum assisted resin
ratio, but in different structural configurations) were prepared for in-
transfer molding (VARTM) technology. The effects of basalt to carbon
vestigating the effects of hybrid ratios and stacking sequences on the
hybrid ratios and stacking sequences on the mechanical properties of
mechanical properties of carbon/basalt fiber reinforced composites, re-
carbon/basalt/epoxy composites were investigated through the tensile
spectively. The corresponding physical properties of each type of lami-
and bending tests, respectively. A modified analytical model and FEA
nates were summarized in Table 2.
technique were also applied to investigate the flexural behaviors of the
hybrid laminated specimens. In order to gain better understanding of
the roles played by fiber hybridization under bending load, digital pho- 2.3. Tensile tests
tography technology was applied to capture damage behaviors of the
specimens during the entire loading process. To apprehend the fracture In this work, the tensile testing specimens with the dimension
mechanism, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was also employed to of 1.9 ± 0.2 mm × 25 mm × 250 mm were cut from the abovemen-
examine the surface morphology of failed specimen of the hybrid com- tioned composite sheets by following the ASTM D3039 standards [26].
posites. This study is expected to gain some new insights into the car- The tensile tests were performed at a quasi-static loading rate of
bon/basalt/epoxy hybrid composites for more extensive applications in 3 mm/min through a standard universal material machine INSTRSON-
industry. 5985 equipped with a load cell of 150 KN at room temperature. Five
repeat specimens of each type of specimens were tested until final fail-
ure, during which all the force and displacement data were recorded.

637
G. Sun et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the VARTM process for fabricating the laminate structures of carbon/basalt fiber reinforced composites.

Table 2
Physical properties of the tested specimens.

Name Average Thickness (mm) Weight fraction of carbon fiber (%) Weight fraction of basalt fiber (%) Total Weight fraction (%) Density (g/cm3 )

C 1.96 58.22 0 58.22 1.37

CB1 1.99 40.31 21.25 61.56 1.48
CB2 1.92 25.52 40.65 66.17 1.61
CB3 1.89 25.75 40.12 65.87 1.62
CB4 1.87 26.77 38.80 65.57 1.60
CB5 1.94 11.78 58.62 70.40 1.73
B 1.84 0 71.69 71.69 1.89

2.4. Flexural tests

As shown in Fig. 3, the flexural test was carried out through a three-
point bending test at a quasi-static loading rate of 1 mm/min as speci-
fied in ASTM D 7264 [29]. Each type of flexural specimens included five
repetitive samples with consistent dimensions of 12.7 × 90 mm by plac-
ing in the center of the three-point bending fixture using Zwick/Roell.
The diameter of loading nose (D) was 6 mm and span-to-thickness ratio
(S:T) was 32:1. Flexural properties were given by:
3𝑃𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝜎𝐹 = (1)
2𝑊 𝑇 2
6𝛿𝑇
𝜀𝑓 = (2)
𝑆2

𝑚𝑆 3
𝐸𝑓 = (3)
4𝑊 𝑇 3
where 𝜎 f , 𝜀f and Ef represent the flexural strength, flexural strain and
modules, Pmax is the maximum load encountered before failure, and
W, T are the width, depth of the specimen, 𝛿, S and m are the mid-
span deflection, support span and slope of the initial linear part of the
displacement-force curve, respectively.

2.5. Material characterization

According to the ASTM specifications, a series of mechanical tests,

Fig. 2. The INSTRSON universal material machine (a) with the DIC system and
specimen (b) for DIC.
Compared with the other measurement methods, Digital Image Cor-
relation (DIC) technique shows its advantages in non-contact and full-
field measurement for displacement and strain data [27]. In the DIC
system, the plane surface of specimen is observed by 2448 × 2050 pixels
telephoto lens equipped with a lens of 50 mm focal length. Then, the im-
ages on the surface of specimen, one before and one after deformation,
are recorded, digitized and stored in a computer as digital images [28].
The sampling rate of the camera was set to be one image per second
to describe the strain evolution during the quasi-static tensile test. The
post-processing analysis of all the measurement results was conducted
with the DIC professional software (ARAMIS, Germany). In this study
the global strain of the hybrid composite specimens was measured by
using the DIC technique, as shown in Fig. 2.
such as tensile (ASTM D3039 [26]), compression (ASTM D695-10 [30]),
in-plane shear (ASTM D3518 [31]), CC (compact compression) and CT
(compact tensile) tests (ASTM E399 [32]), were carried out to deter-
mine the material properties of pure carbon/epoxy and basalt/epoxy
composite laminates. All such strain-stress curves are obtained in Fig. 4.
3. Tensile behavior
3.1. Effect of hybrid ratios
Several typical load-displacement curves and specimen failure dia-
grams are shown in Fig. 5. It can be seen that the C composite (carbon
fibers only) was directly fractured into three sections under the ten-
sile loading, exhibiting a brittle fracture mode. In contrast, the fracture
propagation of B composite (basalt fibers only) was not as brittle as the C
composite, showing better integrity and ductility. Further, various frac-
ture modes can be observed from the failure morphology of the hybrid
composites. These fracture modes are mainly the matrix cracking, fiber

638
G. Sun et al.
Fig. 3. Experimental set-up for three-point bending test.
breakage and delamination at the carbon/basalt interface due to the
weaker interfacial adhesion between dissimilar layers (e.g. carbon fiber
layers–basalt fiber layers) than identical layers (i.e. carbon fiber layers–
carbon fiber layers) [10]. In general, the insertion of basalt fibers into
carbon composite alters its failure patterns and enriches the fracture
modes, presenting a positive hybrid effect of changing from brittle to
more ductile fracture.
Further, for the curves of CB2 (carbon:basalt = 25.52%:40.65%) and
CB5 (carbon:basalt = 11.78%:58.62%), a load recovery can be observed
after a sharp linear decline from the peak force as seen in Fig. 5. This may
be interpreted that the outer layers of carbon fiber could fail at first due
to its low elongation, while the inner layers of basalt fiber could also still
carry load until the ultimate strain of basalt fiber was reached. Further-
more, this behavior could also be used for health monitoring purposes or
as a warning sign prior to final catastrophic failure to ensure safe opera-
tion [33]. However, the curve of CB1 (carbon:basalt = 40.31%:21.25%)
with a high ratio of carbon to basalt fibers displays a significant load
drop similarly to the C composite, indicating that high content of carbon
fibers may lead to a single crack through the whole thickness, resulting
in a sudden, brittle fracture [7].
The tensile moduli for these five types of composite laminates are
shown in Fig. 6. It can be observed that the C composite (50.38 GPa) has
a higher tensile modulus than the B composite (19.09 GPa) due to the
fact that the carbon fibers are stiffer than the basalt fibers. Additionally,
the tensile modulus of composites increases linearly with increase in the
content of carbon fiber. The rule of mixture (ROM) model (Eq. (4) ) that
has been widely used for predicting the tensile modulus of hybrid com-
posites was also adopted in this study [1,2,34]. The results of the tensile
modulus obtained from the experimental tests show a good agreement
with the values estimated by the ROM method. This is because there
was strain compatibility throughout the hybrid composites for measur-
ing the modulus (i.e. initial elastic deformation), in which the carbon
fibers acted as a reinforcement to achieve higher stiffness of the hybrid
composites [22]. The ROM model can be expressed mathematically as:
𝐸 = α𝐸𝐶 + (1 − 𝛼)𝐸𝐵 (4)
where E denotes the effective modulus of the hybrid composites. 𝛼 de-
notes the carbon fiber ratio in the composite laminates. EC and EB denote
the moduli of carbon and basalt fiber materials, respectively.
The effect of hybrid ratio on the tensile strength of composite lam-
inates is shown in Fig. 7. It can be seen that the CB5 composite (car-
bon:basalt = 11.78%:58.62%) shows the lowest tensile strength, which
is 24.5% lower than the B composite. It is interesting to note that the
tensile strength obtained from the experimental tests is lower than the
639
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651
values estimated from ROM, implying a negative hybrid effect. Note
that the positive/negative hybrid effect can be defined in term of a posi-
tive/negative deviation of a certain mechanical property estimated from
the ROM formula, respectively [35]. It should also be highlighted that
the tensile strength of composite laminates shows a decline tendency
first and then raises with increasing carbon fiber content, as reported in
Ref [36]. At a low content of carbon fibers, basalt fibers would be able
to further bear the load even after failure of carbon fibers. Thus the ten-
sile strength of hybrid composites was mainly determined by the basalt
fibers at this stage. In contrast, the hybrid composite with a higher frac-
tion of carbon fibers is expected to fail more catastrophically as soon
as the carbon fibers rupture, in which the carbon fiber would play a
primary role in determining the ultimate strength of the composites.
Based on the above explanations, an analytical model was introduced
to predict the tensile strength of composite laminates [25]. Fig. 7 shows
good agreement between the results obtained from experiment and the
following analytical formula:
[ ( ) ]
𝜎ma𝑥 = max 𝜀𝐶 𝐸𝐶 𝛼𝑐 + 𝐸𝐵 𝛼𝐵 , 𝐸𝐵 𝜀𝐵 𝛼𝐵 (5)
where 𝜎 max denotes the tensile strength of the composite laminates, 𝜀C
and 𝜀B denote the tensile failure strains of carbon and basalt fibers,
respectively, EC and EB denote the tensile moduli of carbon and basalt
fiber materials, respectively, 𝛼 c and 𝛼 B are the corresponding carbon
and basalt fiber fractions of composite laminates, respectively.
3.2. Effect of stacking sequences
Three different configurations of carbon/basalt epoxy hybrid com-
posites with different stacking sequences are investigated in this sec-
tion, which include two types of sandwich-like hybrid composite lam-
inates: CB2 (carbon skin-basalt core composite laminate with the
weight fraction of carbon:basalt = 25.52%:40.65%) and CB3 (basalt
skin-carbon core composite laminate with the weight fraction of car-
bon:basalt = 25.75%:40.12%); and the other configuration is labeled as
CB4 (intercalated symmetric composite laminate with the weight frac-
tion of carbon:basalt = 26.77%:38.80%). As can be seen in Table 2, their
weight fraction of fibers and density are somewhat similar, thus the
stacking sequences are the only experimental variable here.
The tensile properties of these three types of hybrid composites, such
as tensile strength, tensile modulus and failure strain, are summarized
in Table 3. The corresponding curves are plotted in Fig. 8. It can be seen
that all of them have approximately the same tensile modulus, which
was obtained from the initial linear stage of the strain-stress curves. In
other words, the tensile moduli of these hybrid composites are fairly con-
G. Sun et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651

Fig. 4. Strain-stress curves for tensile test (a), compressive test (b), CC (compact compression) test (c), CT (compact tensile) test (d), and in-plane shear test (e).

Table 3
Tensile properties of hybrid composites with different stacking sequences.

Name Laminate Codes Tensile Modules (GPa) Tensile strength(MPa) Failure strain (%)

CB2 [ C2 B2 ] S 35.27± 0.51 354.39± 14.32 1.07± 0.10

CB3 [B2 C2 ]S 34.52± 2.14 385.22± 17.40 1.19± 0.03
CB4 [BCBC]S 36.72± 1.01 437.15± 9.86 1.26± 0.03

sistent and not affected by the stacking sequences because no tensile fail-
ure and damage appeared at this stage. However, the tensile strengths
and failure strains of these three hybrid composites show considerable
difference. The tensile strength and failure strain of CB3 is about 8.7%
and 11.2% higher than those of CB2, respectively. CB4 exhibited the
highest the discrepancy relative to CB3, being of the highest tensile
strength and highest failure strain of these three types (also 26.1% and
17.8% higher than those of CB2). Such enhanced tensile strength and
failure strain may be explained by the bridge effect, in which the basalt
fiber plays a key role in bridging the broken carbon fiber layers [24]. In
other words, the low elongation carbon fibers would break first in the
hybrid composites, stress concentration would appear around the bro-
ken carbon fibers and then accelerate the evolution of cracking, but the
surrounding high elongation basalt fiber layers could act as a connector
between the broken low elongation fiber layers to maintain their in-
tegrity and prevent propagation of the cracks and relieve stress concen-
tration, thus exhibiting a positive effect on enhancing the load carrying
capacity [2].

640
G. Sun et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651

Fig. 7. Comparison between the experiment and different analytical formulas

for tensile strength.
Fig. 5. The load-displacement curves and tensile failure morphology.

Fig. 8. The load-displacement curves of the hybrid composites with different

stacking sequences.
Fig. 6. Tensile moduli of composite laminates with different hybrid ratios.

expressed as:
( )
In addition, as shown in Fig. 8, the curves of CB2 and CB3 both 𝜀 𝑦𝑖 = 𝑘𝑦𝑖 (6)
show a significant load drop when the low elongation carbon fibers frac- where k denotes the curvature, and yi denotes the coordinates of the i-th
tured, but a load recovery as the high elongation basalt fibers took up all ply along the Y axis.
the load, which was also observed by Czél et. [7] in the unidirectional Due to the great difference in strain of each layer, the first failure
carbon/glass-epoxy hybrid composites. However, the curve of CB4 did may not always occur at the outmost layer. The maximum curvature
not have a similar rising stage to those of CB2 and CB3. Instead, there is can be expressed as:
a linear decline after reaching the peak load, meaning that the structure [ ( ) ( )]
𝜀𝐶 𝑦𝑖 𝜀𝑇 𝑦𝑖
of CB4 can exhibit the better reinforcement performance and attain the 𝑘𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝑚𝑖𝑛 , (𝑖 = 1, 2, 3, 4) (7)
highest tensile properties relative to the other two laminates, hence it 𝑦𝑖 𝑦𝑖
may be a potential hybrid composite candidate for applications. where 𝜀C (yi ) and 𝜀T (yi ) denotes the strains of the i-th ply under com-
pression and tension, respectively.
The bending moment M of a beam with rectangular cross section can
4. Flexural behavior be calculated as the sum of each layer,
𝑡 𝑡 𝑡
2 2 2
4.1. Predicting models 𝑀 = ∫ 𝜎𝑥 (𝑦) ⋅ 𝑦𝑤𝑑 𝑦 = ∫ 𝐸 (𝑦)𝜀𝑥 (𝑦) ⋅ 𝑦𝑤𝑑 𝑦 = 𝑘 ∫ 𝐸 (𝑦) ⋅ 𝑦2 𝑤𝑑𝑦 (8)
− 2𝑡 − 2𝑡 − 2𝑡
4.1.1. Analysis model
where t and w are the layer thickness and width of the laminate, 𝜎 x (y)
A simplified model was first used here to predict the flexural strength
and 𝜀x (y) are the stress and strain either in compression or tension in-
under bending as suggested by Zhang et al. [24] for the carbon/glass
dividually, E(y) denotes Young’s modulus of each layer.
hybrid composites. A modified model for predicting the flexural strength
Considering that the laminate is a symmetric sandwich structure, the
of carbon/basalt hybrid composites was then derived as follows.
bending moment can be written as:
As shown in Fig. 9, the strain of each layer is proportional to its
𝑤𝑘 ∑ ( 3
4
distance from the neutral layer based upon the plane assumption un- )( )
𝑀= 𝑡 − 𝑡3𝑖−1 𝐸(𝑖)𝑇 + 𝐸(𝑖)𝐶 (9)
der bending; and hence the strain across the thickness direction can be 3 𝑖=1 𝑖

641
G. Sun et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651

Fig. 9. Schematic of the bending model for determining the flexural properties.

Fig. 10. The FE model for CB2 ([C2 B2 ]S ) configuration, where dark blue represents carbon fiber ply, brown red represents basalt fiber ply.

where ti , E(i)T , E(i)C are the layer thickness, tensile and compression mod- [38]. Considering inevitable delamination, a constitutive model based
uli of the i-th layer, respectively. upon the intra-laminar failure mode and inter-laminar failure mode was
The maximum flexural stress can be obtained by the following for- introduced in the composite part here [39].
mula:

2𝑘 ∑ ( 3
4
𝑀𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝑀 )( ) 4.1.2.1. Intra-laminar failure model. The intra-laminar failure model of
𝜎𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝑦𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝑡 − 𝑡3𝑖−1 𝐸(𝑖)𝑇 + 𝐸(𝑖)𝐶 (10)
𝐼 6𝑤𝑡2 𝑡2 𝑖=1 𝑖 composite materials as proposed by Sokolinsky et al. [38] was adopted
in this study, by utilizing a user subroutine VUMAT in ABAQUS, which
where I denotes the second moment of inertia. was employed to evaluate the fiber damage under tensile, compressive
or in-plane shear loading. The intra-laminar elastic stress-strain relation
4.1.2. Finite element analysis model is given as follows:
Finite element analysis has proven to be a useful technique for char-
⎡ 1 𝑣 ⎤⎧ ⎫
acterizing the mechanical behavior of composite laminates in virtue ⎧𝜀 ⎫ − 𝐸12 0
⎪ ⎪
11 ⎢ (1−𝑑1 )𝐸1 1 ⎥⎪𝜎11 ⎪
of its high effectiveness and low cost [37]. In this study, the fi- 𝑣
𝜺 = ⎨𝜀22 ⎬ = 𝐄𝝈 = ⎢ − 𝐸12 ⎥⎨𝜎 ⎬
1
0 (11)
nite element (FE) analysis was performed by using commercial code ⎢ 1 (1−𝑑2 )𝐸2 ⎥⎪ 22 ⎪
⎪𝜀𝑒𝑙 ⎪ ⎢ 1
⎥ 𝜎12
(ABAQUS/Explicit) to predict the flexural behavior of the carbon/basalt ⎩ 12 ⎭ ⎣
0 0
(1−𝑑12 )2𝐺12 ⎦⎩ ⎭
fiber reinforced hybrid composites. Fig. 10 shows the FE model of hy-
brid composite laminates under the three-point bending, which includes where 𝜺 = { 𝜀11 𝜀22 𝜀𝑒𝑙
12
}𝑇 is the elastic strain vector; 𝜎 =
a loading nose and two support noses that were modeled by using dis- { 𝜎11 𝜎22 𝑇
𝜎12 } is the stress vector; E1 , E2 and G12 are the
crete rigid body. Each of the eight fiber plies was respectively meshed Young’s moduli in the longitudinal and transversal directions, and the
by the 8-node reduced integration continuum shell elements (SC8R). in-plane shear modulus without damage, respectively; v12 is the Pois-
In this study, the composite laminates are made of plain weave car- son’s ratio of the undamaged material; damage variables d1 , d2 , d12 vary
bon or basalt fibers, each ply of fiber reinforced composite was modeled between 0 and 1 induced by micro-damage in the composite laminates,
as a homogeneous orthotropic material that accommodated progressive which characterize the degree of stiffness degradation in the longitudi-
stiffness degradation due to fiber damage under the in-plane shear stress nal, transversal directions, and shear directions, respectively.

642
G. Sun et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651

Table 4
Material properties of carbon and basalt fiber composites.

Material Modulus (GPa) Strength(MPa) Poisson’s ratio Fracture energies(KJ/m2 )

E1 = E2 G12 X1 + = X2 + X1 − = X2 − S 𝜇12 𝐺𝑓1+ = 𝐺𝑓2+ 𝐺𝑓1− = 𝐺𝑓2−

CFRP 50.38 1.70 504 320 31 0.052 62 86

BFRP 19.09 1.54 413 200 23 0.090 88 120

A simple relationship between effective stress tensor 𝜎̂ 𝑖𝑗 and nominal Table 5

stresses 𝜎 ij can be described by [40]: Material properties of cohesive elements [38,46].

⟨𝜎𝑖𝑖 ⟩ ⟨−𝜎𝑖𝑖 ⟩ ⟨𝜎12 ⟩ 𝑡0𝑛 (MPa) 𝑡0𝑠 = 𝑡0𝑡 (MPa) 𝐺𝑛𝐶 (N/mm) 𝐺𝑠𝐶 = 𝐺𝑡𝐶 (N/mm) 𝜂
𝜎̂ 𝑖+ = 𝜎̂ 𝑖− = 𝜎̂ 12 = (12)
1 − 𝑑𝑖+ 1 − 𝑑𝑖− 1 − 𝑑12 12 26 0.504 1.566 2.284

where ⟨ ⟩ denotes the Macaulay bracket operator, calculated by ⟨x⟩ =

(𝑥+|𝑥|)
2
, 𝑥 ∈ 𝑅; the subscripts + and − represent the tension and compres-
sion, respectively.
The damage initiation criteria are listed as follows (here i = 1, 2):
𝜎̂ 𝑖+ 𝜎̂ 𝑖− 𝜎̂ 12
𝐹𝑖+ = 𝐹𝑖− = 𝐹12 = (13)
𝑋𝑖+ 𝑋𝑖− 𝑆
where Fi + , Fi − , F12 are the failure coefficients in the different failure
modes; Xi + , Xi − , S denote the tensile, compressive and shear strengths,
respectively.
In order to justify the damage onset in the materials, the damage
threshold r𝛼 was introduced for different failure modes as [41]:
( )
𝑟𝛼 = max 𝐹𝛼 , 1 (subscripts ∶ 𝛼 = 1±, 2±, 12) (14)
If the failure threshold equals 1, then the material has no damage
and the properties remain unchanged. When failure initiates, the failure
threshold equals F𝛼 ; the stiffness of failed element is degraded according
to the damage evolution law. The corresponding damage evolution law
can be expressed as:
[ ]
1 2𝑔 𝛼 𝐿𝑐 ( )
𝑑𝛼 = 1 − 𝑒𝑥𝑝 − 𝛼 0 𝛼 𝑟𝛼 − 1 (𝛼 = 1±, 2±) (15)
𝑟𝛼 𝐺𝑓 − 𝑔0 𝐿𝑐
Fig. 11. SEM micrograph showing typical kink bands with fractured fibers of
where Lc is the characteristic length of the unit element; 𝐺𝑓𝛼 is the frac- pure basalt fiber composite.
ture energy of the unit area at the specific failure mode; and 𝑔0𝛼 is the
elastic energy per unit volume at the point of failure initiation.
The Benzeggagh-Kenane evolution law is given as follows [45]:
According to Ref [42], the damage variables can be expressed as: { }𝜂
( ( ) 𝑚𝑎𝑥 ) ( ) 𝐺𝑠 + 𝐺𝑛
𝑑12 = min 𝜑12 ln 𝑟12 , 𝑑12 (16) 𝐺𝐶 = 𝐺𝑛𝐶 + 𝐺𝑠𝐶 − 𝐺𝑛𝐶 (18)
𝐺𝑠 + 𝐺𝑛 + 𝐺𝑡
𝑚𝑎𝑥 are the material parameters which can be obtained
where 𝜙12 , 𝑑12 where Gn , Gs , Gt are the fracture energies following the normal and shear
experimentally [38]. tractions, and 𝐺𝑛𝐶 , 𝐺𝑠𝐶 are the corresponding critical fracture energies;
According to the ASTM standard, the material properties of CFRP GC is the total critical mixed-mode fracture energy. The properties of
(carbon fiber reinforcement plastic) and BFRP (basalt fiber reinforce- cohesive elements are given in Table 5.
ment plastic) are obtained by the in-house experiments. The material
parameters needed for computation are summarized in Table 4. 4.2. Fracture characteristics

4.1.2.2. Inter-laminar failure mode. Regarding the inter-laminar me-
chanical behavior of composites, the bilinear softening constitutive
model was adopted [43], which was established by zero-thickness cohe-
sive elements in between each carbon or basalt fiber layer to simulate
delamination damage. Further, the process of interfacial debonding in-
cludes the damage initiation and evolution; and in this case, a quadratic
stress failure criterion and Benzeggagh-Kenane (BK) law were used to
characterize the damage initiation and its evolution, respectively [44].
The function of the quadratic stress failure criterion can be formu-
lated as [45]:
{ }2 { }2 { }2
⟨𝑡𝑛 ⟩ 𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑡
+ + =1 (17)
𝑡0𝑛 𝑡0𝑠 𝑡0𝑡
where tn , ts , tt represent the normal and shear stress components of co-
hesive element, and 𝑡0𝑛 , 𝑡0𝑠 , 𝑡0𝑡 are the corresponding peak values of these
stresses when the separation is either purely normal to the interface or
purely in the first or the second shear direction, respectively.
The failures of composites under bending load generally include ten-
sile failure, compressive failure and delamination. Delamination is a
typical failure mode in laminated composites, which can be caused by
severe interlayer shear or weak interfacial adhesion, resulting in loss
of load bearing capacity of the composites [47]. Compressive failure is
one of the most common failure modes, which includes ply splitting and
micro-buckling. The micro-buckling mode could finally transform into
kink bands. In fact, a detailed micrograph of the fractured surfaces in
the basalt laminates, as shown in Fig. 11, indicates the presence of a
typical compressive failure, which consists of fiber micro-bucking and
kink bands, as observed in [48]. On the other hand, the tensile failure
are uncommon in the flexural tests due to a high ratio of the tensile
strength to compressive strength of carbon or basalt fiber composites.
To identify the damage mechanisms of failed specimens after the
bending tests, the SEM images were taken on the fractured cross-
sectional surfaces of the composite laminates. Fig. 12 shows the fracture
morphology of the front side of those failed samples. From Fig. 12a, the

643
G. Sun et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651

Fig. 12. SEM examination of the failure micrograph of composite laminates under flexural loading: (a) C, (b) B, (c) CB2, (d) CB3 and (e) CB4; high magnification
images of compressive side and tensile side are individually at the both ends, in the middle are low magnification images.

644
G. Sun et al.
Fig. 13. The flexural load-displacement curves with different hybrid ratios.
typical failures of pure carbon laminate, including fiber fracture and
transverse crack, can be seen on both the tensile and compressive sides.
It is also seen that its further propagation along the thickness was ul-
timately transformed into the final failure of the C composite, result-
ing in a transverse catastrophic failure mode. No micro-buckling and
kink bands are observed on the compressive side of the C composite. In
Fig. 12b, however, it is fairly evident that the B composite withstood
delamination and compressive damage in a form of kink-banks, indicat-
ing that the B composite failed with the kinking-slitting mode. A typical
failure pattern of fiber fracture due to tensile only could also be ob-
served in the bottom of the B composite. It should also be noted that the
presence of voids in B composite, which could have a negative effect on
mechanical properties [49].
The micrograph images of a representative failed CB2 composite are
shown in Fig. 12c, in which the fiber fracture can be observed on the
both compressive and tensile sides. This can be attributed to the brittle-
ness of carbon fibers in the outer layers. An evident delamination can
be also seen in the interfaces of carbon and basalt fibers, which may be
due to greater incompatibility between these dissimilar material layers.
It should be pointed out that the cracks seem to be arrested somehow
when it reached the basalt fiber layers. Specifically, the ductile basalt
fiber plies may prevent the cracks from further propagation through the
thickness.
For the CB3 and CB4 hybrid composites, in which the basalt fiber
layers are distributed in the outmost layer, delamination and kink-bands
at the compression side can be observed in Figs. 12d and e, respectively.
Presence of the kink-bands illustrates that the insertion of basalt fiber
at the outermost layers can change the failure modes of pure carbon
composite from a non-kink pattern to a kink band mode.
4.3. Bending response and damage progress
4.3.1. Effects of different hybrid ratios
In this section, the digital photography technology is applied to cap-
ture the images of the entire damage process from initiation to complete
fracture of a composite structure. A typical flexural load-displacement
curves of carbon/basalt fiber composites with different hybrid ratios are
shown in Fig. 13. It can be seen that all these five different fiber lami-
nates exhibited linear elastic behavior at the first stage, where both of
the fibers and matrix borne the load together and no clear fractures oc-
curred. After this, cracks were generated in the matrix, making it lose
the load bearing capacity due to weakened mechanical properties rela-
tive to reinforcement fibers. However, the fibers could continue to carry
load until the initial compressive failure occurred in the upper surface
[50,51]. In this stage, the damage morphology on the compressive side
is shown in Fig. 14 for the C composite, which was recorded when the
645
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651
compressive tests stopped before a sudden load-drop appears, and the
failure modes of matrix cracks and fiber breakage can be observed. Cor-
respondingly, the load-displacement curve of the C composite appeared
a wave zone around the peak force. Similar phenomena can be also ob-
served for the other materials.
Upon further loading, cracks propagated from the compression side
across the thickness direction [52]. The C composite showed a rapid load
loss and a catastrophic failure mode, indicating its brittle characteristics.
However, the final failure occurred so rapidly that the images could not
be captured to examine whether failure initiated from the compression
side or from the tension side [53]. In contrast, the B composite showed
a progressive load rise and significant yielding displacement due to its
inherent ductile characteristics and kink bands formation on the com-
pressive side of specimen (see Fig. 15). When the fiber fracture occurred
from the tension side, the B composite ultimately lost the load carrying
capacity and led to end failure.
As seen in Fig. 13, these three types of hybrid composites all show
a plateau region after the peak of bending load. In order to understand
the damage process of the hybrid composite, FEA was also applied in
this study.
Fig. 16 compares the experimental and numerical load-displacement
curves of the hybrid CB1 composite. The failure progression at different
stages are shown in Fig.16 a–c, a’–c’, respectively, by the empirical and
FEA methods. It is found that the FEA results agreed well with the exper-
imental results, especially both curves presented a plateau region after
the peak bending load, indicating a more progressive failure behavior
in comparison with that in the pure carbon composite. Such stepwise
failure behavior, where the load remained constant along with the in-
crease in the displacement, could be explained that after several car-
bon fiber layers fractured in the center area of the compressive side of
the laminates (Fig. 16b and b’), the inserted basalt fibers in the middle
layer prevented the cracks from further propagation across the thick-
ness. While the fiber layers on the compression side gradually lost their
capacity of carrying load, the carbon fiber on the tensile side can con-
tinue to bear the load due to its superior tensile strength. Finally, the
load of hybrid composites drop rapidly when the bottom carbon fiber
plies failed in tension (Fig. 16c and c’). This gradual failure behavior
can provide an early indication prior to catastrophic failure in contrast
to the failure behavior of pure carbon fiber composites. Nevertheless,
it can also be seen that the load-displacement curve predicted by FEA
shows a sudden drop after the peak load, which was mostly due to the
deletion of shell elements in the loading zone, thus causing no contact
between the loading nose and laminate at the moment. Considering the
highly complicated nature of the bending failure process, the overall
correlation between the experimental and numerical load-displacement
curves is fairly acceptable.
Fig. 17 exhibits the fiber damage distribution of the CB1 composite
in the longitudinal direction, just before reaching the peak load. A more
serious fiber damage distribution could be observed on the compression
side (see Fig. 17(a)). The most severe fracture occurred in the area where
the indenter came into contact with the sample. Both the upper and
bottom plies, which withstood the maximum bending load, presenting
severe damage. Little fiber damage appeared at the neutral layer due to
its almost unstressed status.
4.3.2. Effect of different stacking sequences
The flexural load-displacement curves of carbon/basalt fiber com-
posites with different stacking sequences are plotted in Fig. 18, and it
can be seen that the curves of the CB3 and CB4 composites show a more
gradual decline trend in comparison with CB2, meaning that their struc-
tures are capable of preventing load carrying capacity from significant
drop through a more progressive failure process, which exhibited higher
damage tolerance. Further, the nonlinear load-displacement responses
of CB3 and CB4 may be due to the development of delamination and
kink-bands on the compression side as shown in Figs. 12d and e [54].
G. Sun et al.
Fig. 14. The damage morphology of the compression side of C at the loading fluctuation stage; (a) matrix crack and (b) fiber breakage.
Fig. 15. Failure progression of the B composite (pure basalt fiber composite laminates). No failure occur underneath the loading nose (a), kink bands formation
underneath the loading nose (b), final failure (c).
4.4. Flexural properties
4.4.1. Effect of hybrid ratios
Under the same load, the stress distribution through the thickness
of laminates with different hybrid ratios are shown in Fig. 19. The ten-
sile and compressive stresses present a symmetric distribution with re-
spect to the neutral plane. With increase in the distance from the neutral
plane, the stress increases and the maximum stress occurs at the out-
most layer, whereas the minimum stress appeared at the neutral layer.
Considering the thicknesses of the C and B composite laminates were
insignificantly different, thus no evident difference of the maximum
stresses can be observed between them. Both the maximum compres-
sive and tensile stresses of hybrid composites are higher than those of the
pure carbon and pure basalt fiber composites; of these three hybrid com-
posites, CB5 has the highest maximum stress, followed by CB2, whereas
CB1 has the lowest. There is a trend that with increase in the basalt fiber
content, the maximum stress of hybrid composite increases. This can be
646
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651
explained by the reduction of overall composite laminate stiffness with
increasing proportion of basalt fiber content (in a lower stiffness com-
pared with the carbon fiber). Under the same load, a decreased overall
stiffness would lead to a high flexural strain [55]. Considering that the
stiffer ply of hybrid composite appears in the outermost carbon fiber, its
maximum stress is thus higher than that of the pure carbon composite.
Due to evident difference between carbon and basalt fiber stiffnesses,
a clear turning point of stress can be observed in Fig. 19 between the
different fiber plies in the hybrid composites.
As shown in Fig. 20a, the flexural moduli obtained from the exper-
iment and FEA exhibit good agreement. It can be seen that the C com-
posite has the highest flexural modulus (127.4% higher than that of the
B composite); while it is similar to those of CB2 and CB1, indicating
that the fiber plies in the neutral layer have little contribution to the
overall flexural modulus, whereas the outermost layers are the primary
contributors to its flexural stiffness.
G. Sun et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651

Fig. 16. The experimental and numerical load-displacement curves of the CB1 composite; Failure progression at different stages: linear stage (a, a’), plateau stage
(b, b’), final failure stage (c, c’).

Fig. 17. Damage contours for CB1 hybrid composite laminates at time point t = 0.0184 s; fiber damage in the longitudinal directions at compression side (a) and
tension side (b) respectively.

The result of flexural strength from the experiment, analytical and ral properties by replacing the neutral part of the pure carbon fiber lam-
FEA models are shown in Fig. 20b. Certain difference can be seen in inates with the relatively cheaper basalt fiber layers. Further, it should
between the analytical and FEA models. The results obtained from FEA be noted in Fig. 20 that both the results of the flexural strength/modulus
are slightly higher than that obtained from the analytical estimates. This vs. hybrid ratio from the experiment presents a nonlinear relationship,
is due to the fact that the analytical model could be too simple and un- which was also reported by [47].
able to capture the complex damage process adequately [46]. But both
the analytical and FEA results show a similar trend to the experiment.
4.4.2. Effect of stacking sequences
It should be noted that the FEA bending strengths of C, CB1, B shows
Comparison of the flexural properties with different sequences can
better agreement with that of experiment, whilst the results of CB2 and
be seen in Fig. 21, in which the C and B composites are also included. As
CB5 from the analytical models show better agreement with that of the
shown in Fig. 21a, the flexural moduli obtained from the experiment and
experiment. Of these five configurations, the C composite still provided
FEA show good agreement. It can be seen that CB3 yielded the lowest
the highest bending strength, which is 57.2% higher than that of B, but
flexural modulus of these three hybrid laminates; and in contrast, CB2
it is similar to that of CB1.
generated the highest, which was respectively 74.5% and 46.5% higher
In general, the CB1 composite had almost the same level of flexural
than those of CB3 and CB4 respectively. This result indicated that the
strength and modulus as those of the C composite. Under the bending
flexural modulus of hybrid composites was considerably influenced by
condition, there is potential to reduce the cost without sacrificing flexu-
the stacking sequence of reinforcement fiber layers. Considering that the

647
G. Sun et al.
Fig. 18. The flexural load-displacement curves with different stacking se-
quences.
outermost layers experience the maximum stress and play a major role
in carrying bending load, the flexural modulus is mainly determined
by the properties of the extreme layers and would increases by placing
stiffer plies away from the neural layer.
The results of flexural strength from the experiment, analytical and
FE models are compared in Fig. 21b, where all the flexural strengths of
the hybrid composites are in between those of the C and B counterparts.
For the CB3 composite, better agreement with the experiment can be
obtained from FEA than from the analytical models, whilst for CB4 the
analytical model shows more consistent with the experiment than FEA.
Furthermore, it is interesting to note that both the results from the FEA
and analytical models of CB3 are less than those of CB2 and CB4. But
the experimental results indicate that the CB3 composite can generate
comparable strength to CB2 but slightly higher than CB4.
The stress distribution across the thickness of laminates with differ-
ent stacking sequences are plotted in Fig. 22 for comparison. It can be
seen that CB2 has the highest stress at the outermost layers of these three
hybrid structures, followed by CB3 and CB4, which show lower stresses
than the pure carbon and pure basalt composites. Besides, it can be ob-
Fig. 19. Normal stress in the global X direction and distributed across the thickness of composites with different hybrid ratios under a bending force of F = 50 N.
648
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651
served that the maximum stress of CB4 does not appear at the outmost
layer like CB2, but at the third carbon layers, which is the farthest carbon
fiber layer from the neutral plane. It is seen that the CB3 and CB4 struc-
tures present a different trend of stress distribution across the thickness
in relation to the abovementioned sandwich hybrid composites (carbon
skin and basalt core), indicating that the distribution of stress along the
thickness is evidently influenced by the stacking configurations.
5. Comparison of tensile and flexural response
Fig. 23a compares the tensile and flexural strengths of the car-
bon/basalt composites with the different hybrid ratios. Clearly, the C
composite exhibits the best performance in terms of the tensile and flex-
ural strengths. For the hybrid composites (namely CB5, CB2, CB1), the
tensile and flexural strengths increase with the carbon fiber content. In-
terestingly, it is noted that the flexural strengths of C, CB1, CB2, CB5
were higher than the tensile strengths, which is consistent with the re-
sults in Ref. [24]. Nevertheless, an exception can be seen in the B com-
posite, where the flexural strength is lower than the tensile strength.
This may be due to presence of kink bands on the compression side
under bending, the damage zone induced by the kink bands was nucle-
ated so it can cause longitudinal splitting and lead to premature failure,
thereby preventing higher stress from occurring in the outermost tensile
fibers [48].
Fig. 23b compares the tensile and flexural strengths of the car-
bon/basalt composite with the different stacking sequences. It should be
noted that the strengths of CB2 and CB3 under the bending are higher
than those under the tension. CB4 has the highest tensile strength, but
the lowest flexural strength of these three hybrid composites. Addition-
ally, the tensile strengths of CB2, CB3 are 14.3% and 6.8% lower than
that of B composite, respectively, demonstrating a negative hybrid ef-
fect by inserting the carbon fiber into the basalt composite, but a positive
hybrid effect for the flexural strength, where CB2, CB3, CB4 are 28.7%,
25.3% and 10% higher than that of the B composite.
Overall, for the tensile strength, there is no evident enhancement
of performance by introducing carbon fibers into the basalt composite
laminates, especially for the sandwich-type structure with carbon skin
and basalt core laminate. On the contrary, the flexural strength of all
the hybrid composites is higher than that of the pure basalt composite,
in which an apparently positive effect can be observed.
G. Sun et al. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651

Fig. 20. Comparison of flexural modulus (a) and strength (b) with different hybrid ratios between experiment and different predicting models under three-point
bending.

Fig. 21. Comparison of flexural modulus (a) and strength (b) with different stacking sequences between the experiment and different prediction models under the
three-point bending.

Fig. 22. Normal stress distributed in global X direction across the thickness of laminates with different stacking sequences for a bending force of F = 50 N.

649
G. Sun et al.
Fig. 23. Comparison of tensile and flexural strengths for the composites with different hybrid ratios (a) and stacking sequences (b).
6. Conclusions
In this study, the effect of hybrid ratios and stacking sequences on the
tensile and flexural properties of the carbon/basalt/epoxy hybrid com-
posites were investigated through the experimental, analytical and finite
element methods. The flexural failure modes were examined through
SEM. Within its limitation, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1. ROM (rule of mixture) was employed in predicting the tensile prop-
erties of hybrid composites. The flexural properties was modeled by a
modified analytical model and finite element analysis (FEA) method,
respectively; and both exhibited good correlation with the experi-
ment. The results obtained from the FEA were slightly higher than
those from the analytical model.
2. The effects of hybrid ratio was investigated by five different compos-
ite laminates, namely, B, CB1, CB2, CB5, C. It was found that CB5
had the lowest flexural strength and was even 24.5% lower than
B composite. There was no significantly positive hybrid effect for
the tensile strength, but fairly positive hybrid effect for the flexural
strength.
3. In order to improve the tensile and flexural properties, carbon/basalt
fiber hybrid composites with different configurations, e.g. CB2, CB3,
CB4, were investigated. The stacking sequences showed less influ-
ence on the tensile modulus, but evident influence on the flexural
modulus. The CB2 structure generated the highest flexural modu-
lus; and CB4 had the highest tensile strength in virtue of its bridging
effect. The distribution of bending stress across the thickness was ev-
idently influenced by the stacking configurations. Additionally, the
distribution of bending stress across the thickness was influenced by
the stacking sequence.
4. Hybrid composites exhibited a more progressive failure mode than
the pure carbon composite. Not only could the insertion of basalt
fiber layers have a toughening effect, but also prevent the cracks
from quick propagation through the thickness, modifying the failure
modes of carbon composite from a non-kink pattern to a kink band
mode.
5. In order to maximize the tensile and flexural properties as well
as reduce the weight and cost, design optimization of the stack-
ing sequence and hybrid ratio with deterministic and/or uncertainty
single/multi-objective methods under single/multiple loads can be
another important tool [56–60].
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of
China (51575172, 51475155) and the Open Fund of the State Key Lab-
oratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures of Xi’an
650
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651
Jiaotong University (SV2017-KF-24). Dr Guangyong Sun is a recipient
of Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher
Award (DECRA) in the University of Sydney.
References
[1] Kretsis G. A review of the tensile, compressive, flexural and shear properties of hy-
brid fibre-reinforced plastilcs. Composites 1987;18(January):13–23.
[2] Swolfs Y, Gorbatikh L, Verpoest I. Fibre hybridisation in polymer composites: a re-
view. Composites Part A 2014;67(December):181–200.
[3] Zhu G, Sun G, Yu H, Li S, Li Q. Energy absorption of metal, composite and
metal/composite hybrid structures under oblique crushing loading. Int J Mech Sci
2018;vol. 135:458–83.
[4] Sun G, Wang Z, Hong J, Song K, Li Q. Experimental investigation of the quasi-static
axial crushing behavior of filament-wound CFRP and aluminum/CFRP hybrid tubes.
Compos Struct 2018;194:208–25 18.
[5] Hayashi T. On the improvement of mechanical properties of composites by hybrid
composition. In: Proc. 8th Intl. Reinforced Plastics Conf.; 1972. p. 149–52.
[6] Dong C, Davies IJ. Flexural strength of bidirectional hybrid epoxy composites rein-
forced by E glass and T700S carbon fibres. Composites Part B 2015;72:65–71.
[7] Czél G, Wisnom MR. Demonstration of pseudo-ductility in high performance
glass/epoxy composites by hybridisation with thin-ply carbon prepreg. Composites
Part A 2013;52:23–30.
[8] Dong C, Davies IJ. Optimal design for the flexural behaviour of glass and carbon
fibre reinforced polymer hybrid composites. Mater Des 2012;37:450–7.
[9] Dong C, Ranaweera-Jayawardena HA, Davies IJ. Flexural properties of hybrid
composites reinforced by S-2 glass and T700S carbon fibres. Composites Part B
2012;43:573–81.
[10] Fiore V, Di Bella G, Valenza A. Glass–basalt/epoxy hybrid composites for marine
applications. Mater Des 2011;32:2091–9.
[11] Naik N, Ramasimha R, Arya H, Prabhu S, ShamaRao N. Impact response and damage
tolerance characteristics of glass–carbon/epoxy hybrid composite plates. Composites
Part B 2001;32:565–74.
[12] Pandya KS, Veerraju C, Naik NK. Hybrid composites made of carbon and glass woven
fabrics under quasi-static loading. Mater Des 2011;32:4094–9.
[13] Lopresto V, Leone C, De Iorio I. Mechanical characterisation of basalt fibre reinforced
plastic. Composites Part B 2011;42:717–23.
[14] Dhand V, Mittal G, Rhee KY, Park S-J, Hui D. A short review on basalt fiber reinforced
polymer composites. Composites Part B 2015;73:166–80.
[15] Mingchao W, Zuoguang Z, Yubin L, Min L, Zhijie S. Chemical durability and me-
chanical properties of alkali-proof basalt fiber and its reinforced epoxy composites.
J Reinf Plast Compos 2008;27:393–407.
[16] Czigány T, Vad J, Pölöskei K. Basalt fiber as a reinforcement of polymer composites.
Periodica Polytechnica Mech Eng 2005;49:3.
[17] Lim JI, Rhee KY, Kim HJ, Jung DH. Effect of stacking sequence on the flexu-
ral and fracture properties of carbon/basalt/epoxy hybrid composites. Carbon Lett
2014;15:125–8.
[18] Sarasini F, Tirillò J, Ferrante L, Valente M, Valente T, Lampani L, et al. Drop-weight
impact behaviour of woven hybrid basalt–carbon/epoxy composites. Composites
Part B 2014;59:204–20.
[19] Ary Subagia IDG, Kim Y, Tijing LD, Kim CS, Shon HK. Effect of stacking sequence
on the flexural properties of hybrid composites reinforced with carbon and basalt
fibers. Composites Part B 2014;vol. 58(March):251–8.
[20] Artemenko S. Polymer composite materials made from carbon, basalt, and glass fi-
bres. structure and properties,. Fibre Chem 2003;35:226–9.
[21] Dong C, Davies IJ. Flexural and tensile strengths of unidirectional hybrid epoxy
composites reinforced by S-2 glass and T700S carbon fibres. Mater Des (1980-2015)
2014;54:955–66.
G. Sun et al.
[22] Zhang Y, Li Y, Ma H, Yu T. Tensile and interfacial properties of unidirectional
flax/glass fiber reinforced hybrid composites. Compos Sci Technol 2013;88:172–7.
[23] Marom G, Fischer S, Tuler F, Wagner H. Hybrid effects in composites: condi-
tions for positive or negative effects versus rule-of-mixtures behaviour. J Mater Sci
1978;13:1419–26.
[24] Zhang J, Chaisombat K, He S, Wang CH. Hybrid composite laminates reinforced
with glass/carbon woven fabrics for lightweight load bearing structures. Mater Des
(1980-2015) 2012;36:75–80.
[25] Ullah H, Hgcarland AR, Silberschmidt VV. Damage modelling in woven-fabric CFRP
laminates under large-deflection bending. Comput Mater Sci 2012;64:130–5.
[26] A. Standard, "Standard test method for tensile properties of polymer matrix compos-
ite materials," ASTM D3039/D M, vol. 3039, p. 2008, 2008.
[27] McCormick N, Lord J. Digital Image Correlation. Mater Today 2010;13(Decem-
ber):52–4.
[28] Yoneyama S, Murasawa G. Digital image correlation. Exp Mech 2009.
[29] D. ASTM, 7264/D 7261M–07," Standard test method for flexural properties of poly-
mer matrix composite materials.
[30] A. Standard, "D695-10, 2010. Standard test method for compressive properties of
rigid plastics, West Conshohocken, PA: ASTM International; 2010. ed.
[31] D. ASTM. D3518. Standard test method for in-plane shear response of polymer ma-
trix composite materials by tensile test of a 45 laminate. West Conshohocken, PA:
ASTM International; 2001.
[32] A. Standard, "E399-83,". Standard test method for plan-strain fracture toughness of
metalic materials. Philadelphia: Annual Book of ASTM Standards; 1984. p. 592–622.
[33] Wu ZS, Yang CQ, Tobe YH, Ye LP, Harada T. Electrical and mechanical characteri-
zation of hybrid CFRP sheets. J Compos Mater 2005;40:227–44.
[34] Ahmed KS, Vijayarangan S, Naidu A. Elastic properties, notched strength and frac-
ture criterion in untreated woven jute–glass fabric reinforced polyester hybrid com-
posites. Mater des 2007;28:2287–94.
[35] Dong C, Davies IJ. Flexural and tensile moduli of unidirectional hybrid epoxy com-
posites reinforced by S-2 glass and T700S carbon fibres. Mater Des (1980-2015)
2014;54:893–9.
[36] Khatri SC, Koczak MJ. Thick-section AS4-graphite/E-glass/PPS hybrid composites:
Part I. Tensile behavior. Compos Sci Technol 1996;56(January):181–92.
[37] Yang B, Wang Z, Zhou L, Zhang J, Liang W. Experimental and numerical investiga-
tion of interply hybrid composites based on woven fabrics and PCBT resin subjected
to low-velocity impact. Compos Struct 2015;132:464–76.
[38] Sokolinsky VS, Indermuehle KC, Hurtado JA. Numerical simulation of the crushing
process of a corrugated composite plate. Composites Part A 2011;42:1119–26.
[39] Zhu G, Sun G, Li G, Cheng A, Li Q. Modeling for CFRP structures subjected to
quasi-static crushing. Compos Struct 2018;184:41–55.
[40] Matzenmiller A, Lubliner J, Taylor R. A constitutive model for anisotropic damage
in fiber-composites. Mech Mater 1995;20:125–52.
[41] Lapczyk I, Hurtado JA. Progressive damage modeling in fiber-reinforced materials.
Composites Part A 2007;38:2333–41.
[42] Johnson AF. Modelling fabric reinforced composites under impact loads. Composites
Part A 2001;32:1197–206.
651
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 148 (2018) 636–651
[43] Liu S, Cheng X, Zhang Q, Zhang J, Bao J, Guo X. An investigation of hygrother-
mal effects on adhesive materials and double lap shear joints of CFRP composite
laminates. Composites Part B 2016;91(April):431–40.
[44] Turon A, Dávila CG, Camanho PP, Costa J. An engineering solution for mesh size
effects in the simulation of delamination using cohesive zone models. Eng Fract Mech
2007;74(July):1665–82.
[45] A. Version 6.13. Analysis User’s Manual. Providence, RI: Dassault Systemes Simulia
Corp.; 2013.
[46] Ullah H, Harland AR, Lucas T, Price D, Silberschmidt VV. Finite-element mod-
elling of bending of CFRP laminates: multiple delaminations. Comput Mater Sci
2012;52:147–56.
[47] Prusty RK, Rathore DK, Singh BP, Mohanty SC, Mahato KK, Ray BC. Experimen-
tal optimization of flexural behaviour through inter-ply fibre hybridization in FRP
composite. Constr Build Mater 2016;118:327–36.
[48] Carmisciano S, Rosa IMD, Sarasini F, Tamburrano A, Valente M. Basalt woven
fiber reinforced vinylester composites: flexural and electrical properties. Mater Des
2011;32:337–42.
[49] Dong C, Duong J, Davies IJ. Flexural properties of S-2 glass and TR30S carbon
fiber-reinforced epoxy hybrid composites. Polym Compos 2012;33:773–81.
[50] De Carvalho NV, Pinho ST, Robinson P. An experimental study of failure initiation
and propagation in 2D woven composites under compression. Compos Sci Technol
2011;71:1316–25.
[51] Li T, Zhang Y, Dai J-G. Flexural behavior and microstructure of hybrid basalt textile
and steel fiber reinforced alkali-activated slag panels exposed to elevated tempera-
tures. Constr Build Mater 2017;152:651–60.
[52] Thwe MM, Liao K. Effects of environmental aging on the mechanical properties of
bamboo–glass fiber reinforced polymer matrix hybrid composites. Composites Part
A 2002;33(January):43–52.
[53] Swolfs Y, Geboes Y, Gorbatikh L, Pinho ST. The importance of translaminar frac-
ture toughness for the penetration impact behaviour of woven carbon/glass hybrid
composites. Composites Part A 2017;103:1–8.
[54] Subagia GA, Kim Y. A study on flexural properties of carbon-basalt/epoxy hybrid
composites. J Mech Sci Technol 2013;27:987.
[55] Kalantari M, Dong C, Davies IJ. Numerical investigation of the hybridisation mech-
anism in fibre reinforced hybrid composites subjected to flexural load. Composites
Part B 2016;102:100–11.
[56] Sun G, Liu T, Fang J, Steven GP, Li Q. Configurational optimization of multi-cell
topologies for multiple oblique loads. Struct Multidiscip Optim 2018;57:469–88.
[57] Sun G, Pang T, Fang J, Li G, Li Q. Parameterization of criss-cross configurations for
multiobjective crashworthiness optimization. Int J Mech Sci 2017;124:145–57.
[58] Sun G, Zhang H, Fang J, Li G, Li Q. A new multi-objective discrete robust optimiza-
tion algorithm for engineering design. Appl Math Modell 2018;53:602–21.
[59] Sun G, Liu T, Huang X, Zheng G, Li Q. Topological configuration analysis and design
for foam filled multi-cell tubes. Eng Struct 2018;155:235–50.
[60] Sun G, Zhang H, Fang J, Li G, Li Q. Multi-objective and multi-case reliability-based
design optimization for tailor rolled blank (TRB) structures. Struct Multidiscip Op-
tim, 2017;55:1899–916.