Fabrication and reinforcement‐toughening mechanisms of carbon/glass super‐hybrid composites

Abstract Obtaining thinner and wider unidirectional tows of fibers is key to achieving a high degree of hybridization, however it remains a significant challenge. Here, an efficient method is developed to produce highly dispersive fiber tows by the synergistic effect of mechanical vibration and airflow disturbance. It is commonly believed that interlaminar hybridization of carbon fiber composites with other fibers shows excellent strength. There is no denying that it still suffers from limited design flexibility, insufficient carbon‐glass hybridization, and suboptimal toughening effects. In this study, we have innovatively designed and fabricated super‐hybrid composites with a higher degree of fiber compounding. As a result, we demonstrated that the tensile modulus and extreme strain of the super‐hybrid composite increased by 19.5% and 26.3%, compared to the interlaminar hybrid composite. Meanwhile, the super‐hybrid fiber composites exhibit excellent dynamic mechanical and impact resistance properties. In addition, based on the impact test, a VUMAT subroutine stem from the 3D Hashin damage model was developed to simulate the impact process. The error between the experimental data and the simulated energy absorption performance is about 10%, indicating that the existing 3D Hashin damage model is still suitable for the prediction of impact performance of hybrid fiber composites. Highlights A fiber tow spreading method with the synergistic effect of mechanical vibration and airflow disturbance was proposed. This paper presents a fabrication method of carbon/glass super‐hybrid composites. A VUMAT subroutine stem from the 3D Hashin damage model was developed to simulate the impact process.