An investigation on mechanical properties and drilling characteristics of basalt e glass reinforced epoxy based hybrid composite pipes

Abstract

Hybrid fiber-reinforced polymer composites have garnered significant attention in recent decades for their lightweight nature, ease of processing, cost-effectiveness, and enhanced mechanical properties. The improvement of these composites depends on several things, such as the reinforcements used, how evenly they are distributed, the order in which the laminates are stacked, and the ways in which the polymer matrix and reinforcements are fabricated. This work focuses on fabricating hybrid basalt/E-glass fiber-reinforced polymer composite pipes using the filament winding method. These pipes, comprising eight layers of plies, were fabricated under controlled conditions of fiber tension, mandrel rotation speed, and winding angle. Eleven pipe arrangements with varying fiber content proportions and stacking sequences were studied to investigate the influence of hybridization on mechanical and chemical characteristics. Test specimens were then prepared for comprehensive mechanical characterization, including microhardness, tensile, compression, flexural, drop weight impact, hydrostatic burst tests, volume fraction analysis using the Burn-off method, and immersion degradation analysis according to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards. Microstructure fractography analyses were conducted using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and ultrasonic C-scan techniques to assess the void presence, fiber delamination, interfacial bonding, fiber pullout, and matrix distribution. The results revealed that the BGH7 hybrid composite pipe, with 50% sharing of both basalt and E-glass fibers, exhibited maximum strength compared to pure E-glass and other hybrid reinforced composite pipes, attributed to the stacking sequence of E-glass fibers. newline