Layout design and mechanical behavior of 3D printed intralayer hybrid continuous carbon/glass fiber composites

Material extrusion has been successfully applied to prepare basic interlayer hybrid continuous fiber composites and resulting in positive toughening effects. It is necessary to prepare the intralayer hybrid fiber composites that can better utilize the manufacturing advantages of 3D printing. This study aims to investigate the design and preparation of composites with different intralayer hybrid structures, establish a tensile strength prediction model considering intralayer hybrid effects, assess the impact of hybrid types and ratios on the mechanical properties, and analyze the influence mechanism of intralayer hybrid fibers through the morphologies of damaged specimens. The results demonstrate that error between the predicted tensile strength value and the experimental value does not exceed 13 %. The prepared samples exhibit a favorable balance of mechanical properties. By introducing just 25 % volume fraction glass fiber path, the maximum impact strength can be improved by 230 %, while the tensile strength only experiences a 10 % drop.