The HipERDIF (High performance discontinuous fibres) technology for the manufacturing of pseudo-ductile quasi-isotropic aligned discontinuous fibre composites

Thanks to their pseudo-ductile behaviour, both in the cured and the uncured status, certain aligned discontinuous hybrid fibre composites (ADFRCs) have the potential to overcome two of the main limiting factors to the widespread adoption of composite materials, i.e. the generation of defects during manufacturing and the catastrophic failure of the cured material. The HiPerDiF (High Performance Discontinuous Fibres) technology, invented at the University of Bristol, produces ADFRCs with mechanical properties comparable with those of continuous fibre composites. Intimately hybridising different types of fibres the HiPerDiF technology allows producing unidirectional ADFRCs with pseudo-ductile tensile behaviour. However, it is usually necessary to balance the load-carrying capability in multiple directions. In this study, glass-carbon and carbon-carbon hybrid ADFRCs are manufactured with the HiPerDiF technology and laid-up in a quasi-isotropic laminate [0/60/-60]s. The obtained laminates demonstrate the high mechanical properties and the pseudo-ductile behaviour of the quasi-isotropic hybrid ADFRC laminated materials.