Impact damage resistance of novel adhesively bonded natural fibre composite – Steel hybrid laminates

Synthetic fibre reinforcements are increasingly replaced with plant fibres but an improvement in the mechanical performance of biocomposites is required. Flax composite exhibits failure and perforation even at low impact energies. This paper investigates viability improving resistance flax-epoxy biocomposite by hybridisation a thin metal layer. High-speed cameras optical microscopy were used to measure dissipated energy identify different damage modes. The response hybrid was compared reference GFRP monolithic it shown that deformation significantly reduced configuration. Additionally, numerical model developed Abaqus/Explicit validated terms displacement history study reveals effect various material configurations thicknesses on proves penetration improved construction.