Improving the bonding strength of laminated composites by optimizing fabric composition

Delamination is the most common failure mode in laminated composites due to the weaker strength in the through-the-thickness direction. Air-jet texturing is used to produce bulk and loops in the yarn which provides more contact surface between fibers and resin. The development and characterization of core-and-effect textured glass yarns and the effect of texturing on the mechanical properties of laminated composites were presented in previous papers. This article describes the optimization of textured composites by varying the type and combination of constituent yarns for improving the mechanical properties. Composites with combinations of various textured yarns and non-textured yarns were made. It was observed that the composites made from fabrics having non-textured yarn in the warp and core-and-effect textured yarn in the weft had the best combination of mechanical properties. They maintained the tensile and flexure properties of composites with non-textured yarns but had significantly higher interlaminar shear strength. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers.