Characterizing damage evolution of CF/PEKK composites under tensile loading through multi-instrument structural health monitoring techniques

Abstract

This study investigates the damage behavior of autoclave consolidated carbon fiber/Polyetherketoneketone (CF/PEKK) laminates manufactured by the automated fiber placement (AFP) lay-up process. The damage evaluation of autoclave consolidated samples is studied using a multi-instrument nondestructive monitoring approach. The effect of autoclave consolidation on the microstructure of the laminate is examined via void analysis based on density measurement, thermal analysis, and optical microscopy. The results reveal that the void content is achieved as 0.46% and there is 81.81% increase in the degree of crystallinity following the autoclave consolidation. Moreover, acoustic emission (AE), digital image correlation (DIC), and infrared thermography (IRT) results are cross-correlated to further understand the damage development. The evolution of clustered AE data during mechanical loading is used to divide the failure of the laminate into two stages, each of which signifies a different dominancy in failure modes. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is employed to associate damage characteristics with failure monitoring techniques.