Investigation of impact properties of para-aramid composites made with a thermoplastic-thermoset blend

During impact, thermoset composites show brittle behaviour, whereas thermoplastic composites show a relatively ductile behaviour with higher absorption of impact energy. The research on the investigation of the impact performance of composites with thermoplastic resin and/or with a blend of thermoplastic and thermoset resins found rare. In the present study, both thermoset (phenolic, vinyl ester) and thermoplastic (Polyvinyl butyral - PVB) matrices were used with Para-aramid reinforcement for the development of five-layered composite samples. Drop weight impact, Charpy impact, flexural (three-point), and hardness tests were conducted to assess the performance of the composite samples. The developed thermoplastic composites showed superior impact properties as compared to thermoset composites except for out-of-plane deformation (trauma). This deformation was reduced using a blend of PVB and Phenolic. The composite made with blend absorbs 8-9% more energy as compared to Phenolic composites with almost the same value of trauma. Overall, damage area is also lesser in the case of composite made using a blend. The experimental results are validated by one-way ANOVA (Tukey) statistical analysis.