Enhancing the fracture toughness of carbon fibre/epoxy composites by interleaving hybrid meltable/non-meltable thermoplastic veils
D. Quan (Structural Integrity & Composites)
RC Alderiesten (Structural Integrity & Composites)
Clemens Dransfeld (Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies)
Neal Murphy (University College Dublin)
Alojz Ivankovic (University College Dublin)
R. Benedictus (Structural Integrity & Composites)
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Abstract
Interlaying thermoplastic veils into carbon fibre/epoxy composites has proved to significantly increase the interlaminar fracture toughness. The main toughening mechanism is thermoplastic fibre bridging for the non-meltable veils and matrix toughening for the meltable veils. Herein, to take advantage of different toughening mechanisms, hybrid meltable/non-meltable thermoplastic veils were used to interlay two types of aerospace-grade composites produced from unidirectional (UD) prepregs and resin transfer moulding of non-crimp carbon fibre fabrics (NCF). The mode-I and mode-II fracture behaviour of the interleaved laminates were investigated. The experimental results demonstrated outstanding toughening performance of the hybrid veils for the mode-I fracture behaviour of the UD laminates and for both of the mode-I and mode-II fracture behaviour of the NCF laminates, resulting from the combination of different toughening mechanisms. For example, the maximum increases in the mode-I and mode-II fracture energies of the NCF laminates were observed to be 273% and 206%, respectively.
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