Interlaminar Fracture toughness in Glass Cellulose Reinforced Epoxy hybrid composites
Laminates of fibre reinforced compositesare weak in through thicknessbut strong in fibre direction, this lead to development of hybridizationconcept in polymer composites. In this work a new method of disperssing cellulose micro particleson unidirectional (UD) Glass fibre epoxy composite using semi automated draw down coating technique was adopted to enhance fracture toughness.Test results show that by adding cellulose increases the load carrying competency by 32% in mode I as compare to Glass Epoxy composite samples. Imrovement in interlaminar critical energy release rates (GiC and GnC) up to 55% in Mode I and 19 %in Mode II respectively was also observed. This enahancement in fracture toughnees is due to the amount of fiber bridging seen during crack initiation and propagation.