Residual Impact Strength of Intra-ply, Inter-ply and Functionally Gradient Basalt/Poly-ester Hybrid Composites Subjected to Charpy Impact

In this paper, the residual impact strength of inter-ply, intra-ply, and functionally gradient composite subjected to Charpy pre-impact with various energy levels was experimentally investigated. Basalt and poly-ester fibers along with epoxy resin were used to produce different hybrid composites. The purpose of using this hybrid composite is to simultaneously use the good mechanical properties of basalt fiber and the excellent impact resistance of poly-ester fiber. In all the composite samples, the relative content of basalt fiber to poly-ester fiber was equal to 50 percent. Comparison the results of impact absorption energy in cases without pre-impact and with pre-impact of 1.5 and 3 J cases indicates that in the case of no pre-impact or low-energy pre-impact, the performance of the inter-ply specimen (Interply2) is significantly higher than the FGM specimens, however, by increasing pre-impact energy, the FGM samples have equal or better impact performance than the inter-ply sample. This result is due to the type and extent of damage caused by the pre-impact energy.