Temperature Effect on Tensile Testing of Hybrid and Non-Hybrid Composites

Monotonic tensile tests were conducted following ASTM Standards D3039 (Standard Test Method for Tensile Properties of Polymer Matrix Composite Materials) and D3518 (Standard Test Method for In-Plane Shear Response of Polymer Matrix Composite Materials by Tensile Test of a ??45° Laminate), on hybrid and non-hybrid plain weave composite materials. Strips of non-hybrid IM-7 Graphite/SC-79 epoxy called GR for short, non-hybrid S-2 Glass/SC-79 epoxy called GL for short, hybrid GR/GL/GR and hybrid GL/GR/GL specimens were tensile tested. The tests were conducted at –60°C, –20°C, room temperature, 75°C and 125°C. The rule of mixtures was used to predict the Young’s moduli of GL/GR/GL and GR/GL/GR using the experimental values obtained from the stress-strain curves of the GL and GR specimens. The predicted Young’s moduli of GL/GR/GL and GR/GL/GR were then compared to those obtained experimentally. It was found that the calculated Young’s and shear moduli match closely (within 6 %) to those obtained experimentally.