Investigation of the tensile performance and failure mechanism of carbon–aramid hybrid fibers/epoxy sandwich structure laminates using the UV-thermal synergetic curing mechanism: Experimentation and simulation

Abstract

The tensile failure mechanism of carbon–aramid hybrid fibers/epoxy sandwich structure laminates was investigated by using experimental and finite element methods. Double curing agents, triarylsulfonium hexafluoroantimonates and triethylene tetramine with a mass ratio of 4:15 were introduced into the laminates. Sandwich structure laminates, with different proportions of hybrid fibers, were cured by UV-initiated anion/cationic dual curing technique. The results showed that the synergetic curing effects of two curing agents were observed under UV irradiation, leading to the better curing of the system, which further plays a positive influence on the mechanical performance. The tensile properties and failure mechanism of the laminates depended on the stacking sequence and fiber volume fractions of the layer structures. The interplay hybrid laminates, containing three alternate plies with fiber contents of 67.7 vol%, presented the optimal tensile performance, and its tensile strength and modulus were 0.82 GPa and 22.09 GPa, respectively. The fracture morphologies revealed that pull-out and debonding of fibers were the main failure mechanism of hybrid laminates. The performance of sandwich structure laminates was determined by the load-carrying capacity of carbon fiber and load-transferring capacity of the aramid fiber and adhesive. The finite element model based on experiments was established to simulate the stress state and failure mechanism of sandwich laminates. The results demonstrated that the stress was better transferred into carbon fibers from the aramid fibers and adhesive, and the relative error rate of maximum stress from finite element analysis and experimental results was less than 5%, which were in reasonable agreement with the experimental results.