Characteristics of Carbon and Kevlar Fibres, Their Composites and Structural Applications in Civil Engineering—A Review

Kevlar and carbon fibres and fabrics have won a leading place in the structure market, although such materials are not cheap, and are increasingly used for reinforcing and strengthening structural elements in the civil engineering, automotive, aerospace and military industries, due to their superior mechanical properties, especially in terms of strength. The mechanical characteristics of such composite materials must be known in order to numerically simulate the mechanical behaviour of such structures in terms of the distribution of stresses and strains. It has also become a necessity to understand the effects of reinforcement with both types of fibres (carbon fibres and Kevlar fibres) on the mechanical properties, especially on the impact properties of such composites. This review aims to expose the main advantages and disadvantages of the hybridization of carbon and Kevlar fibres. For this reason, an overview is presented concerning the main characteristics (tensile strength, flexural strength, impact strength, coefficient of thermal expansion and so on) for carbon and Kevlar fibres and also for hybrid Kevlar–carbon composite materials to aid in the design of such hybrid composite materials. Finally, some civil construction rehabilitation and consolidation applications of the composites reinforced with carbon fibre, Kevlar fibre or with hybrid Kevlar–carbon fabrics are highlighted in the last part of the paper.