Effect of Glass Fibers Stacking Sequence on the Mechanical Properties of Glass Fiber/Polyester Composites

Abstract

The objective of this work is to compare the mechanical properties including tensile, bending and impact properties between different glass fiber architecture reinforced polyester composites which are fabricated by a hand lay-up technique. The effects of stacking sequences of glass fibers consists of five layers which mainly are plain woven, short fiber, and sandwich layer glass composites on the mechanical properties of composites have been studied. The results showed that the tensile and bending properties of all different composite laminates are significantly higher compared to the neat resin. The plain woven glass reinforced polyester composites showed the highest values compared with other composite laminates. As the glass fiber mats a core are tightly packed and absorbs the impact stresses and distributes them evenly in the composites sandwich layer, the glass composites showed the highest value of impact strength compared with other composite laminates. Moreover, from SEM investigations, in these composites, there is an inverse relationship between the amount of delamination and the amount of hackles, and as the hackles increase the mechanical properties including tensile and bending of these composites are enhanced.