Abstract
For composites fabricated by the filament winding method, resin viscosity, fiber tension, and winding angle are three important parameters. This study presents the influence of these three parameters on mechanical properties of composite cylinders fabricated by filament winding. The material systems studied were glass/epoxy, carbon/epoxy, and hybrid reinforcements (carbon+glass)/epoxy. In this study, it is found that most the mechanical properties of composite cylinders made by these three material systems are improved when a higher resin viscosity is adopted. For composite rings wound with fiber tension of 15 Nt (Newton) and 50 Nt, lower tension results in lower tensile strength when the winding angle of 90° is used; however, opposite results are observed when the winding angle of 60° and 45° are adopted. On compressive test, lower tension causes higher strength in all these three cases. Furthermore, fiber placement also affects the mechanical properties of the composite ring. In this study, the mechanical properties of hybrid composite rings cut from fabricated cylinders were tested. As compared to glass/epoxy and carbon/epoxy composite rings, it is found that hybrid composite rings A1 and A2 types (A1: carbon fiber at inner layers and glass fiber at outer layers, A2: glass fiber at inner layers and carbon fiber at outer layers) show a medium strength in both tensile and compressive tests and B type (glass fiber and carbon fiber tows are co-wound onto the mandrel) shows a lower mechanical properties except for the case of 90° composite ring under compressive load. Moreover, the morphology of the fracture surface was also examined in this study.