Effect of stitch and biaxial yarn types on the impact properties of biaxial weft knitted textile composites

Within the scope of experiments, the effects of stitch yarn type, such as aramid, glass, and nylon, and biaxial, warp, and weft yarn type, such as aramid and glass, on biaxial weft knitted (BWK) composites were investigated. Five different types of composite panel, which include fiber contents, such as glass-glass-glass, glass-glass-nylon, glass-glass-aramid, aramid-glass-aramid, and aramid-aramid-aramid, were fabricated by hand lay-up method. After the production of composite panels, three-point bending impact and plate bending impact tests were conducted on the specimens. Microstructural characterization of the impact-tested materials was performed using an optical microscope. This study shows that composites with BWK preforms consisting of fiber combinations such as glass-glass-aramid had higher plate bending impact and three-point bending impact properties than the other four types of composite structure.