Investigation of interfacial mechanical properties for laminated composites reinforced with mesh wire

The increasing use of composite materials along with the developing technology substantially increases the importance of the design of composite materials. Composite materials can be subjected to various impacts according to the places of use. At the stage after being exposed to impacts, different types of damages such as fiber breakage, matrix cracking, fiber matrix interfacial damage, delamination and puncture may occur in composite materials. One of the methods to increase the strength in composite material is the use of additional reinforcement strands between fabric layers. The results of various studies show that the addition of reinforcement strands increases the strength of the composite. However, the effect of the reinforcement strands used on the interfacial strength of the composite under out-of-plane loads is unknown. In the present study, the effect of braided fiber strands to be placed between fabric layers in the production step of laminated composites on the strength of the composite under in-plane and out-of-plane loads was experimentally and numerically investigated. For this purpose, glass fiber woven and aluminum woven fiber strand layers were placed between woven glass fiber fabrics. The composites were produced by vacuum infusion method using an epoxy matrix material. In the experiments, tensile tests, double cantilever beam (DCB), end-notch flexure (ENF) and impact tests were conducted. In the numerical analysis, critical energy release rates were calculated with the help of the ANSYS finite element software and compared with the experimental results. Based on the results obtained from the tests, between glass fiber fabrics, the placement of woven fibers of its own material provided a better interfacial strength to be obtained than that of aluminum wires. However, increasing the weaving density reduced the interfacial properties.