Carbon Fiber vs Kevlar vs Fiberglass - Which one is right for YOU?

Links to videos used as filler material

[KYLEENGINEERS]

Since Youtube is about to delete annotations, figured I'd post them here for everyone to see. Enjoy the video!

0:01 The numbers in this video are generic data taken from official sources (such as DuPont) to demonstrate trends. Your material specifics may vary significantly. Always consult your material data from your manufacturer before designing a layup!

10:14 What I more should've said was shock loading where the part is expected to not fail, as fibreglass and kevlar will do better here. Carbon is a very common material in impact attenuators because they are designed to permanently deform (fail) inwards. Carbons high stiffness allows you to use a tube like structure and be very strong in direct compression (10:19 in video) without buckling. You then use a geometry like a tapered cylinder or cone and it essentially folds in on itself, absorbing large amounts of energy as it progressively folds down. This is further helped by the thicker walls per unit weight for carbon, which means they have more bending strength on a skin basis. FIbreglass may have buckled in this scenario (on either a skin or whole structure level, not stiff enough), and kevlar is weak in compression, so carbon is the way to go.

10:31 Kevlar fuel tanks: Kevlar has very high toughness and good abrasion resistance, and fuel tanks are a component that will only ever see very high loadings in tension, so Kevlar is appropriate here. I guess for the applications I was only really thinking bodywork

[-ax-]

carbon fiber vinyl is the best, instantly adding 100+ horsepower unlike any of those

[the_rush_to_nothing]

I didn't understand any of this, screw it, i'm using concrete.

[Dr.DerekJohnson-MD]

I am now enlightened and ready to argue with everyone about racing materials..

[MrMikeyPayne]

Wow, you really understood what we non-engineers needed to understand. Thanks for the interpretation of these materials. I had tried to understand it myself in the past and it was frustrating to not be able to get a clear interpretation. I will rewatch this several times until I can regurgitate it for applications in the future.

[guitarnoob]

I was a material science student, this is just like music to my ears, haha.

[abdulelahqutub]

I'd love a resin comparison video. This video was really informative.

[justcarcrazy]

In sailplane construction, we use glass fibre extensively to handle bearing stress, where it outperforms aramid and carbon fiber. We use aramid in the crash protection zone of the canopy, where glass and carbon dust would be harmful in a crash. We use carbon fibre only where lightness and stiffness is important. Also, the stiffness you give for the raw materials is much greater than the fibre-matrix combination, with carbon fibre in an epoxy matrix having only a quarter of the stiffness of steel.

[ChimeraActual]

This agrees with my experience building high performance power and sailboats. I worked with S glass, carbon, and Kevlar from about 1978 to 1998, it appears that things haven't changed much.

Most of the failures I saw were compression failures, we quickly learned never to use Kevlar in compression. I think part of the problem is that it's hard to get Kevlar (basically a polyethylene, therefore "slippery") to bond to the matrix. It was always a pain in the ass to use, hated by all.

I loved S glass, by far the best strength and stiffness / dollar, great in compression. With any fiber, but especially with glass you must make sure that the sizing is compatible with the resin you use.

Carbon fiber, miracle shit. We built a 30' carbon fiber/epoxy/Nomex honeycomb sailboat hull and bracing (ca. 1988) that came off the mold at about 250 lbs, stiff as a brick. Two layers of 0/90 tow | Nomex honeycomb | 0/90 tow. Only issue? you could take a sharp pencil and smash it straight through the hull. We warned the purchaser not to do that...

[maxjtj]

Go into detail on how composite structures work from a stress point of view!

[EnhancedNightmare]

Hey man great vid, I was looking for something like this. One variable you never mentioned is temperature resistance. I would love to see you going through matrices, different resins or other materials to bond the fibers!

[thomasblackwell]

That was a great lecture. I have not had one like that since I was in my engineering materials class at the University of Arizona 30 some years ago. You covered it masterfully.

[adriannuske]

You deserve no only my subscription, but all my admiration as this is one of the best videos I've ever seen on youtube, from a technical perspective.
Not only the information is complete regarding every aspect of each material is compared in isolation, but the combination in real use is perfectly described for practical analysis. Plus conscise and not self-oriented video. I'm definetely gona stick around you channel! :)

[UndergroundTrev]

This was incredibly interesting and informative. Thanks!

[monkeypainter]

Anytime you ask if we want a video. My vote is yes.

[bradcomis]

This is a great video! Really helpful for understanding the basics without getting bogged down in hyper technicalities.

[cduartebr]

Nice, it's been a while since I last read anything technical regarding composite materials. This video helped clearing up a lot of things. Thumbs up!

[johncgibson]

Thumbs up. Much better than a bunch of professors lectures.

[EricLaermans]

Great video. I build R/C speedboats and these rules pretty much apply to speedboats too. Contrary to my collaegue model-builders I have always appreciated the use of GFK (fibreglass) in many areas where others chose Carbon-fibre by default.

[zakphat]

Well presented and digested for us genies. Lightning quick intro, to the point and abundance of knowledge condensed in 11 minutes. I truly enjoyed it. Well done mate and many thanks.