{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,4]],"date-time":"2026-08-04T09:37:30Z","timestamp":1785836250993,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,15]],"date-time":"2024-08-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1723680000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania"},{"name":"National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Materials"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The large-scale use of composite materials reinforced with carbon\u2013aramid hybrid fabric in various outdoor applications, which ensures increased mechanical resistance including in impact loadings, led to the need to investigate the effects of aggressive environmental factors (moisture absorption, temperature, thermal cycles, ultra-violet rays) on the variation of their mechanical properties. Since the literature is still lacking in research on this topic, this article aims to compare the low-velocity impact behaviour of two carbon\u2013aramid hybrid composite materials (with and without rubber core) and to investigate the effects of water absorption on impact properties. The main objectives of this research were as follows: (i) the investigation of the mechanical behavior in tests for two impact energies of 25 J and 50 J; (ii) comparison of the results obtained in terms of the force, displacement, velocity, and energy related to the time; (iii) analysis of the water absorption data; (iii) low-velocity impact testing of wet specimens after saturation; (iv) comparison between the impact behaviour of the wet specimens with that of the dried ones. One of the main findings was that for the wet specimens without rubber core, absorbed impact energy was 16% less than the one recorded for dried specimens at an impact energy of 50 J. The failure modes of the dried specimens without rubber core are breakage for both carbon and aramid fibres, matrix cracks, and delamination at matrix\u2013fibre interfaces. The degradation for the wet specimens with rubber core is much more pronounced because the decrease in the absorbed impact energy was 53.26% after 10,513 h of immersion in water and all the layers were broken.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ma17164055","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,15]],"date-time":"2024-08-15T05:47:11Z","timestamp":1723700831000},"page":"4055","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Effects of Rubber Core on the Mechanical Behaviour of the Carbon\u2013Aramid Composite Materials Subjected to Low-Velocity Impact Loading Considering Water Absorption"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Stefania","family":"Ursache","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Transilvania University of Brasov, B-dul Eroilor, No. 29, 500036 Brasov, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1905-5023","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Camelia","family":"Cerbu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Transilvania University of Brasov, B-dul Eroilor, No. 29, 500036 Brasov, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anton","family":"Had\u0103r","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Strength of Materials, Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Robotics, National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, 313 Splaiul Independentei, 060042 Bucharest, Romania"},{"name":"Academy of Romanian Scientists, Ilfov Street No. 3, Sector 5, 050044 Bucharest, Romania"},{"name":"Technical Sciences Academy of Romania, Dacia Boulevard No. 26, Sector 1, 010413 Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Horia Alexandru","family":"Petrescu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Strength of Materials, Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Robotics, National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, 313 Splaiul Independentei, 060042 Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"352","article-title":"A Review on Recent Applications and Future Prospectus of Hybrid Composites","volume":"1","author":"Gururaja","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. 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