Fatigue behavior of the 3D orthogonal carbon/glass fibers hybrid composite under three-point bending load

Highlights: • The static and fatigue flexural properties of a 3D orthogonal carbon/glass fibers hybrid composite were investigated. • The failure propagation and morphologies of the hybrid composites were captured in detail using the 3D microscope. • The 3D hybrid composite shows good static and fatigue flexural properties due to the binding of the Z-direction yarns. • The compressive failure of warp yarns and Z-binder yarns are two primary fatigue failure modes of the 3D hybrid composite. -- Abstract: Hybrid composites containing more than one type of high performance fibers show better mechanical properties than traditional composites reinforced with one kind of fibers. This paper investigated the static and fatigue flexural properties of a newly designed 3D orthogonal carbon/glass fibers hybrid composite. The flexural properties of the 3D orthogonal carbon fibers composites and the laminated carbon/glass fibers hybrid composite were discussed to reveal the advantages of the static flexural properties of the 3D orthogonal carbon/glass fibers hybrid composite. 50%, 55%, and 60% of the maximum stress of the 3D orthogonal and laminated carbon/glass fibers hybrid composites were respectively selected for the three-point bending fatigue test. The failure propagation of the composites and their fracture morphologies were captured in detail using the 3D microscope. The results found that the 3D integrated structure and hybrid effects resulted in the 3D orthogonal carbon/glass fibers hybrid composite showing the best static flexural strength. The fatigue performance of the 3D orthogonal carbon/glass fibers hybrid composite was superior to the laminated carbon/glass fibers hybrid composite since Z-direction yarns were beneficial to resist the interface failure. The stress levels contributed to the variations of the failure modes of the composites under three-point bending fatigue loading.