Adhesively bonded joints of hybrid flax/jute fibre reinforced composites: An experimental study

This study examines how fabric architecture and hybridization affect the performance of adhesively bonded jute/flax composite joints. Single-lap joints were fabricated using epoxy-bonded composites, including neat jute, neat unidirectional (UD) flax, neat twill flax, and hybrid configurations with a jute core and flax outer layers, and then tested under tensile loading. The results show that fabric architecture significantly influences failure modes. Unidirectional flax fabric promoted controlled failure at the adhesive interface, while twill architectures tended toward delamination. Hybridization with flax substantially enhanced joint performance compared to neat jute. Hybrid joints with UD flax achieved up to 98% of the strength of neat UD flax joints, while twill flax hybrids reached up to 99% of neat twill counterparts. The UD architecture proved superior, showing up to 32% greater strength than equivalent twill flax hybrids. A key finding was that increasing from two to three flax layers provided a marginal strength improvement (