Mechanical properties of thermoset composites based on woven fabric from recycled carbon fibre yarn

Although hybrid yarns containing recycled carbon fibres (rCF) and thermoplastic fibres offer significant potential for sustainable composites, their use in thermoset composites remains challenging due to fibre shortening, poor inter-fibre cohesion, and difficulties in producing textile reinforcements with high rCF content. This study investigates the mechanical behaviour of thermoset composites reinforced with a 2/2 twill woven fabric manufactured from a high-rCF-content yarn and compares it with a unidirectional (UD) composite from the same yarn and a woven-fabric composite reinforced with a virgin carbon filament yarn. A homogeneous 100% rCF sliver was prepared by carding and drawing and processed into a friction-spun yarn containing more than 90 wt% rCF, which was woven into a 2/2 twill fabric. Thermoset composites were manufactured by resin transfer moulding and evaluated by tensile and Charpy impact tests. The UD composite based on rCF yarn achieved the highest tensile strength (1173 MPa), Young’s modulus (100 GPa), and impact strength (87.7 kJ/m ² ). The composite based on rCF woven fabric exhibited a tensile strength of 227 MPa and a Young’s modulus of 27 GPa, compared with 677 MPa and 55 GPa, respectively, for the composite based on virgin carbon filament woven fabric. Despite its lower tensile properties, the composite based on rCF woven fabric exhibited a comparable impact strength (70.1 kJ/m ² ) to the virgin carbon filament woven-fabric composite (66.2 kJ/m ² ). These findings demonstrate the influence of the reinforcement architecture on composite performance.