Effect of current intensity on properties of the carbon fiber fabric and composites

Abstract

The carbon fiber fabric was electrified at the current intensities of 4 A for 1 h, 8 A for1 h, 16 A for 1 h and 16 A for 2 h, and then the carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composite laminates (CF/EP) were prepared. The effects of different current intensities on the surface temperature of the carbon fiber fabric, the micro morphology of the carbon fiber, the mechanical properties of CF/EP composites and the fracture morphology of the tensile specimens were studied. The significance of the effect of current intensities on the mechanical properties of CF/EP was investigated by means of quantitative statistical analysis. The results show that the maximum surface temperature of the carbon fiber fabric during heating is 115 °C ~125 °C; At significance level α= 0.01, the mechanical properties of CF/EP composites were not significantly affected by different current intensities; The surface micro morphology of the carbon fiber fabric treated with current intensity of 4 A for 1 h, 8 A for 1 h and 16 A for 1 h was not significantly different from that of untreated. After current intensity of 16 A for 2 h, the surface grooves were deepened and the surface granular protrusions were increased; No obvious difference was observed in the fracture morphology of samples with different current intensity. The results show that in the self heating process of carbon fiber composites, when the current intensity of single-layer carbon fiber fabric is less than 16 A and 2 h, it will have no significant impact on the properties of the composites.