Utilizing recycled or short fibers for making useful engineering composite component is a present research trend and requirement. Current research work explicates the effect of short carbon fibers (SCF) used as secondary reinforcement in woven glass/epoxy hybrid composites and evaluates their mechanical properties. Different concentrations (0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 wt%) of SCF were incorporated to assess the tensile, flexural, and interlaminar fracture toughness (Mode I and II) of the resulted composites. Composites with 0.1 wt% SCF showed 29.02% and 16.08% increment in the tensile and flexural strength, respectively. For Mode I and Mode II interlaminar fracture toughness tests, 0.1 wt% SCF‐GE samples showed the highest strain energy release rate. Double cantilever beam specimens were used for Mode I testing and an improvement of 13.49% in GIC value was observed. End‐notched flexure method was used for the Mode II tests, and 0.1 wt% SCF‐GE samples showed 20.45% increase in GIIC values. This paper explains the various reasons and mechanisms for obtaining such results. Scanning electron microscopy of the fractured surfaces was carried out to perceive the diverse failure micro‐mechanisms that could have been involved.

This study is focused on the evaluation of the tensile performance of glass/carbon inter-ply hybrid fiber-reinforced polymer composites at different combinations of temperatures and loading speeds. With an increase in the number of carbon/epoxy (CE) ply in glass/epoxy (GE) composites, some of the tensile properties as tensile modulus, strain at failure, and difference of strain at failure of different fibers are enhanced. Further, the change in the stacking sequence of the CE ply at a particular hybrid ratio alters the tensile properties as well as the nature of failure. Placing a CE ply in place of GE ply at the center in the GE composite resulted in hybrid composite (G 2 C 1 G 2) that imparts pseudo-ductility as well as hybrid effect in the composite. On the other hand, replacing a GE ply with CE at one end (C 1 G 4) and both ends (C 1 G 3 C 1) imparted improved strain at failure and positive hybrid effect in the composites. The tensile modulus of G 2 C 1 G 2 outstrips the modulus of CE and GE by 12.05% and 65.95% at a loading speed of 0.1 mm/min and a temperature of 110 C. Fractography analysis of neat as well as hybrid composites was done to analyze the fracture mechanism.

The fabrication of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites generates vast amounts of waste carbon fiber. In the present work, these waste carbon fibers were added in varying contents (0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 wt%) to glass fiber/epoxy (GE) composite as short carbon fibers (SCFs) to improve its ambient and elevated temperature mechanical performance. The flexural and tensile behavior of the SCF modified GE composites were assessed at 30, 50, 70, and 110 C.The most significant improvement in mechanical performance was achieved by adding only 0.1 wt% of SCF into GE composite across most of the temperatures. At elevated temperatures, all the SCF-modified GE composites showed superior mechanical performance over the control GE composite. An important correlation between SCF content in GE composite and elevated temperature mechanical performance enhancement has been discussed. Differential scanning calorimetry was performed to understand the effect of SCF addition on GE composite's glass transition behavior. Fractography was conducted to study the various failure mechanisms at ambient and elevated temperatures.

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