Effects of different production methods and hybridization on mechanical characteristics of basalt, flax, and jute fiber-reinforced composites

Abstract The advanced material properties and high quality of composite products are largely dependent on the production methods. In the current search, it was examined how the mechanical properties of flax, jute, and basalt fiber-reinforced composites were affected by three different production methods and hybridization processes. The materials were produced by hand lay-up, vacuum bagging, and vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding methods. While the physical and mechanical properties of specimens were determined by hardness, tensile, and water absorption tests, the fiber behavior of the composites was investigated by micrograph analysis. Tensile test data gave better results for homogeneous samples by 1.4–16.4 % for the samples produced with the use of vacuum-assisted resin transfer technique in comparison to the samples manufactured by the vacuum bagging technique, and by 7.3–22.5 % in comparison to the samples fabricated by the hand lay-up technique. Compared to the other two methods, 7.3–35.3 % better tensile strength results were obtained when using the VARTM technique in hybrid samples. Moreover, the hardness value measurement of the samples also supports the tensile strength data. However, the water absorption analysis results display that samples produced by hand lay-up absorb less water than samples produced by the other two production methods.