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.
Highlights
Carbon fibre reinforced epoxy (CF/EP) composites are prone to interlaminar delamination due to the inherent brittleness of epoxy matrix
The hybrid thermoplastic veils were used to interlay two types of aerospace‐grade CF/EP laminates produced from UD prepregs and resin transfer moulding (RTM) of non‐crimp carbon fibre fabrics (NCF)
It was proved that the Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) fibre remained intact and the PA veils melted at the laminate curing temperature [14], and the PA fibres melted and ‘phase‐separated’ to their original fibrous shape in the hybrid interleaved UD laminates
Summary
Carbon fibre reinforced epoxy (CF/EP) composites are prone to interlaminar delamination due to the inherent brittleness of epoxy matrix. After the laminate curing, thermoplastic phases can exist in the laminates in different forms, such as being intact [12,13], molten during the laminate curing process [14,8] and partially or completely dissolved in the epoxy matrix [7,15]. For these reasons, the use of thermoplastic materials as interlayers allows researchers to tailor the mechanical and fracture properties of CF/EP laminates by adjusting the content, shape and form of the thermoplastic materials in them
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