Mode II Interlaminar fracture toughness of flax and glass epoxy hybrid composites

Delamination is a significant mode of failure in composite materials during service; It prevents the adequate dissemination of load between plies lowering the strength of the material, which could consequently lead to a cascading effect of failure. Providing more data on the delamination properties of composite material during loading will increase the adoption of composite materials in more industries. This study aims to characterize the mode II interlaminar fracture toughness of hybrid composites – hybrid one [0G/0F]8S, hybrid two [04G/04F]S and hybrid three [04G/ (90/0)2F]S. Furthermore, this study explores the application of Finite Element Analysis as a tool to assess the damage in a composite material during delamination. In this study, mode II fracture toughness of three hybrids of flax and glass epoxy is characterized according to the ASTM standard D7905 standard. Finite Element Analysis is applied to assess the failure in the flax plies of the respective hybrid.