Improving the impact performance and residual strength of carbon fibre reinforced polymer composite through intralaminar hybridization

In this paper, the impact and compression after impact (CAI) performance of conventional woven carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite and a new co-woven carbon-liquid crystal polymer (CLCP) intralaminar hybrid composite are investigated. The carbon-LCP hybrid composite outperforms the carbon fibre composite by up to 71% in terms of impact perforation energy. The damage tolerance of the hybrid composites is significantly improved even though the compressive strength of the hybrid composite is lower than that of the carbon fibre composite. After 40–100 J impact, the hybrid composites can sustain 68.1–50.3% of their compressive strength while the carbon fibre composite can only sustain 27.7–16.4% of its compressive strength. In the CLCP, the tough LCP fibres effectively restricted crack extension in the composite during impact. The CAI strength of the hybrid composites also outperforms the carbon fibre composite by up to 18% after higher energy impacts.