Influence of Fiber Orientation and Fillers on Low Velocity Impact Response of the Fabric Reinforced Epoxy Composites

The low velocity impact response of the epoxy composite materials, which were reinforced with various hybrid contents, such as plain pure or hybrid fabrics (carbon, aramid and glass fibers and copper wires) and filler mixtures into the epoxy matrix (aramid powder, potatoes starch, barium ferrite and carbon black) was investigated using a drop weight impact machine. The aim of this study was to characterize and assess the effects of fiber orientation at various angles and filler mixtures into epoxy matrix on the impact response. All the tests were carried out at constant impact energy, namely 90.629 J. Results indicated that the fiber orientation at various angles has a positive effect on impact response, mainly in the case of aramid fabric reinforced composites. In terms of influence of fillers addition into matrix, it was obtained an improvement on the impact response of hybrid fabric reinforced composite as compared to the pure fabric reinforced composites.