A Short Review of Recent Progress in Improving the Fracture Toughness of FRP Composites Using Short Fibers

Fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) composite laminates have excellent mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and designability and thus are widely used in various engineering fields. However, their interlayer performance is relatively poor due to no fiber reinforcement between the laminate layers. These layers are adhered through resin bonding only, caused during their usage, which results in composite material delamination damage, thus, limiting its performance. In response, researchers have conducted numerous studies on how to improve the interlaminate properties of laminates through component and structural modifications of the composites and interlaminate toughening. Short fiber toughening is a simple and effective way to solve this problem. This paper reviews the latest research progress in short fiber interlaminate toughening and short fiber modified resin toughening, analyzes the mechanisms of short fiber toughening is fiber bridging, fiber debonding, fracture, and the toughening mechanisms specific to different fibers. This review paper also discusses the current problems encountered in short fiber toughening and provides an outlook on the future development direction for short fiber toughening to provide a reference for subsequent research on short fiber toughened composites.