The influence of hybridization on the crashworthiness and energy absorption characteristics of pultruded glass-graphite/epoxy composite beams was investigated. Low-velocity drop weight instrumented impact tests were conducted on these hybrid composites to determine the load-deformation behavior for evaluating the impact performance in terms of the ductility index, damage initiation, propagation and total absorbed energies. Three-point static flexural tests were also conducted to compare the static load-deformation characteristics with that of the dynamic low-velocity impact tests. The behavior under both static as well as dynamic loading conditions was simulated using finite element modeling procedures to identify the failure mechanisms for optimizing the performance of pultruded hybrid composites.
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