Effect of Kevlar/Glass Hybrid Reinforcement on the Performance of Epoxy/Vinyl Ester Hybrid Resin

ABSTRACT Synthetic polymer composites exhibit exceptional strength, making them ideal candidate for manufacturing industrial applications. Besides their advantages these composites have lower tendency under impact loads, which severely hinders their widespread utilization. Considering the facts, this study involves fabrication of hybrid composite materials incorporating a stacked combination of kevlar/glass fabrics reinforced into epoxy/vinylester hybrid resins at varied ratios (70:30, 50:50, and 30:70). The prepared hybrid composites were then subjected to mechanical and thermal analysis to observe the influence of fiber hybridization as well as hybrid resins effect. The kevlar/glass hybrid composite with balanced resins ratio (50:50) outperformed the (70:30) sample by 8.44% in tensile strength (227.8 MPa) and 8.63% in flexural strength (134.11 MPa). This superior strength is attributed to the better bond formation between the resins, which ultimately supported the hybrid reinforcement. A better fiber/matrix interfacial adhesion was observed in balanced resin‐based hybrid composite during scanning electron microscopic analysis, including reduced fiber pull‐outs, and delamination. Furthermore, thermogravimetric analysis revealed that the proposed hybrid composite exhibited enhanced thermal stability as well as residual char. Thus, the result of this study provides valuable insights into the hybrid composite laminates, and such composites are promising for various industrial applications. These newly developed materials are auspicious for high‐performance engineering applications without conferring environmental problems.