Theoretical determination of elastic and flexural modulus for inter-ply and intra-ply hybrid composite material

In this paper a theoretical analysis for determination of elastic and flexural modulus of natural fibre reinforced hybrid composite is proposed. The proposed analytical model is based on the classical lamination approach to predict the theoretical modulus. Experimental tensile and 3-point bending tests were carried out using standard specimens of inter and intra-ply hybrid composite materials. The elastic and flexural modulus predicted by the new approach showed a better agreement with the experimental results, with a maximum deviation of 11.21% and 11.65 % respectively. From the results it was observed that the theoretical value of elastic and flexural modulus was not accurately predicted by rule of hybrid mixture method. The proposed approach can be adopted as a primary tool to predict the modulus of the composite and it can also be used to optimise the composite parameters such as volume fraction of fibre, ply and fibre orientation, etc. for the maximum performance.