ABSTRACT Within this study, the effect of external layers of glass unidirectional and flax twill woven fabrics on the mechanical strength of glass and flax/polypropylene (PP) laminates was evaluated. In this study, four kinds of fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites with flax and glass fibers (glass–glass–glass, flax–flax–flax, glass–flax–glass and flax–glass–flax) were produced with a hot press machine. The tensile, three‐point bending, Charpy impact tests, and optical microscope (OM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses were conducted on fabricated specimens. The results demonstrated that the existence of outer layers of glass fabric in a flax/PP laminate positively affects the mechanical characteristics of thermoplastic composites. The tensile, bending, and impact strength of flax/PP laminate were improved from 45.2 to 150 MPa, from 46.7 to 319 MPa, and from 0.69 to 3.36 J by adding outer layers of glass fabric. Furthermore, the specimens with flax external layers had only improved tensile strength of glass/PP laminate from 110 to 251 MPa. The hybridization with glass fiber was an effective method for improving the mechanical characteristics of flax/PP laminate.
Demircan et al. (Tue,) studied this question.