Composites have been used extensively in various engineering applications including automotive, aerospace, and building industries. Hybrid composites made from two or more different reinforcements show enhanced mechanical properties required for advanced engineering applications. Several issues in composites were resolved during the last few years through the development of new materials, new methods and models for hybrid joints. Many components in automobile are joined together either by permanent or temporary fastener such as rivets, welding joint and adhesively bonded joints. Increasing use of bonded structures is envisaged for reducing fastener count and riveted joints and there by drastically reducing assembly cost. Adhesive bonding has been applied successfully in many technologies. In this paper, scientific work on adhesively bonded composites and hybrid composites are reviewed and discussed. Several parameters such as surface treatment, joint configuration, material properties, geometric parameters, failure modes, etc. that affect the performance of adhesive bonded joints are discussed. Environmental factors like pre-bond moisture and temperature, method of adhesive application are also cited in detail. A specific case of adhesive joints in hybrid bonded-bolted joints is elaborated. As new applications are expanding in the field of composites joining and adhesive joints, it is imperative to use information on multiple adhesives and their behaviour in different environmental conditions to develop improved adhesive joint structure in mechanical applications.

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In this study, a comparative analysis of basalt, E‐glass and hybrid fiber reinforced vinyl ester composites was carried out. Composites were fabricated using vacuum infusion process with 0°/90° and ±45° as fiber orientation angles. The influence of volume fraction on mechanical behaviors and surface morphology of impact fractured composites were analyzed. The glass and basalt fibers oriented at 0° have shown higher load bearing capability, whereas the fibers oriented at 45° angle have shown higher plastic deformation. Hybridized composite having silane treated glass fibers has shown enhanced mechanical properties including tensile strength, bending strength, toughness, and elongation at break due to good bonding between fibers and polymer matrix. The tough and flexible interface between fiber and matrix dissipates more energy through stress transfer from matrix to fiber, allowing increased resistance to shearing. The impact test of BGS‐0.2 hybrid composite showed 103% and 108% of strength improvement compared to basalt (B‐0) and glass fiber (G‐0) reinforced laminates, respectively. However, the fiber orientation at 45 degree showed reduced the strength and modulus with high elongation. The fractography micrographs of hybrid composites have shown the effectiveness of basalt and glass fiber orientation in the composites and bonding between fiber and matrix indicating flexible interphase between the fiber and matrix during impact loading. The composites added with silane have shown marginal increase in water uptake due to presence of polar functional groups in the coupling agent.

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