Hybrid composites based on polyethylene and carbon fibres : Part 5: Energy absorption under quasi-static crash conditions

The crush performance of tubes from epoxy resin composite with intermingled high-performance polyethylene (I) fiber-carbon fiber hybrid with a const. fiber orientation, was studied. The sp. crush stress, being the sustained crush stress divided by the tube d., was used for sp. energy absorption comparison between 2 hybrid composites contg. 55 and 77% I fibers. The overall results showed that the post-crush structural integrity of carbon fiber-epoxy resin composite tubes can be improved significantly by hybridization with I fibers. However, no hybrid effect was obsd. with respect to sp. energy absorption due to a linear redn. in crush load with increasing amt. of I fibers.