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4.8.4 Quasi-Static Fracture Analysis

Fracture mode analysis was conducted with the assist of optical microscopy to

investigate the failure mechanism of the tested specimens. Fundamentally, the failure

mechanisms can be used to discover the correlation factors that affecting such as
strength and stiffness of the hybrid and pure composites, as previously done in

examining the fracture surfaces of flax fibre reinforced polymer in resisting static and

dynamic loadings [164], and also use to measure the influence diameter of jute fibre
for mechanical and physical properties characterisations [165].

As mention previously, the SL sequence of E-glass/basalt, E-glass/jute and E-
glass/flax exhibited a higher of quasi-static indentation properties compared with their

IC sequences and these can be explained by examining the fracture modes of the tested
specimens as elucidated in Figures 4.18 to 4.20. As shown in Figure 4.18, it was clearly

seen the severe damages at the back surface of [G/B]3G, with the horizontal and
vertical cracks propagation are much higher than its G2/B3/G2. Moreover, the similar

pattern was observed for [G/J]3G with the severe fibre breakage was observed at the

back surface as shown in Figure 4.19(b). Meanwhile, only matrix cracking was
recorded at the back surface of G2/J3/G2 as shown in Figure 4.19(a). From the

indentation surface, it was observed that [G/F]3G exhibited the initial fibre fracture

and its failure mode is more severe as compared to G2/F3/G2 as illustrated in Figure
4.20.

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