Translaminar fracture toughness of interply hybrid laminates under tensile and compressive loads

Abstract This paper presents an experimental study of the translaminar fracture toughness under tensile and compressive loads of interply hybrid polymer-matrix composite laminates. The studied laminates were obtained by combining two of three different reinforcements: woven carbon fabric, woven glass fabric and unidirectional carbon tape, manufactured using the Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) process. The resulting in-plane quasi-isotropic laminates were generated by changing each material location along the thickness.