Effects of Weave Structure on Mechanical Behavior of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polybenzoxazine Composite

Abstract

This work aimed to study the effects of weaving structures of fiber-reinforced polybenzoxazine resin composites (plain weave, twill weave, and unidirectional carbon fabric) on the physical and mechanical properties to develop a lightweight and high-performance strike panel of hard ballistic armor. The experimental results revealed that the flexural strength and impact resistance of the twill weave structure of the composite exhibited the greatest value among other structures in which those values of 763 MPa and 43 kJ/m², respectively. After testing, the specimen composites would cause damage deep on the surface area in the shape of base/cone, similar to the shooting of strike panel. The highest tensile strength of 517 MPa was from the specimen reinforced with unidirectional fabrics structures due to the high density and high filament count of carbon fibers and the same direction as the tensile testing of carbon fibers. Physical properties, it was found an excellent adhesion between carbon fiber weave structure and the polymer matrix, so demonstrating that both cooperating to achieve good result these laminates by scanning electron microscopy. Moreover, will weave structures of composite with low-density properties would have high flexural strength and impact resistance composites. Due to the 2D woven structure, these were able to transmit load simultaneously in longitudinal and transverse weave directions. Therefore, it had good resistance to stiffness, stress, and stress distribution. As in weave structure of composite, it could be seen that twill weave had low contact friction, crimp, and binding effect because of its minimum intersection point compared with plain weave and unidirectional fabrics, which was a low level of fiber crimp impart relatively high mechanical properties compared with a plain weave which suitable to develop strike panel for a hard ballistic armor application.