Experimental study on crushing characteristics of brittle fibre/epoxy hybrid composite tubes

Abstract

The collapse characteristics and energy-absorption capability of three kinds of hybrid composite tubes, G827-G803/3234, G827-G803/5224 and G827-759/5224, are studied in the present article. Each of the specimens containing two kinds of brittle fibre has been examined by both axial quasi-static and impact crushing test. The effects of fibre type, fibre content and loading conditions on the crushing-failure characteristics, peak load and energy-absorption capability are discussed. The test results show that for G827-G803/3234 tubes, the crushing failure mode is changed from the splaying mode to the fragmentation mode when quasi-static loading is changed to impact loading, while for others there is no such characteristic. The fibre type and fibre content have significant influences on peak load. It is observed that the tubes containing only one kind of brittle fibre have lower peak load than the ones containing two kinds of fibres with approximately equal hybridisation contents. The energy-absorption capability can be improved by reasonably hybridising with two kinds of brittle fibres. Generally, the energy-absorption capability is reduced remarkably under impact crushing test in comparison with that under quasi-static test.

Keywords:

• Crushing test
• hybrid composite tube
• energy absorption
• brittle fibre
• failure mode

Acknowledgements

The work described in this paper is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant number 10532020 and the State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University. The authors wish to gratefully acknowledge this support.