Braided fabrics are suitable for structural members of Fiber Reinforced Plastics (FRP) as the reinforcement. The braided fabric can be fabricated into various cross-sectional shape such as tube, rectangular, I-shape, L-shape structures and so on. By using this braiding technique, near net-shape products with continuity of the reinforcing fibers can be achieved, so excellent mechanical properties were expected. In addition, unidirectional fiber bundles can be inserted into braided fabric and various types of fiber bundles and number of fiber bundles can be changed according to the required design.
In this study, in order to investigate the fiber hybrid effect on the mechanical properties of FRP, several kinds of hybrid I-shaped braided fabric with glass and carbon fibers were fabricated and used for the reinforcement of I-beam composites. The bending properties were examined with 4-point bending test, and bending strength of the hybrid specimens was improved by optimally combining the glass and the carbon fiber compared with the specimen with sole carbon fiber with keeping bending modulus.
