Numerical simulation of stress distribution for CF/EP composites in high temperatures

Abstract

The high-performance carbon fiber materials can be obtained by decomposing carbon fiber reinforced resin matrix composites using thermally activated oxide semiconductors. This paper established the representative volume element (RVE) of carbon fiber/epoxy resin composites, and investigated the structure destruction of composites in the recycling process based on analysis of the stress and strain distribution by the thermomechanical coupling module of Digimat. The results indicated that the maximum thermal stress of the epoxy resin appeared in the poor resin region, while the minimum appeared in the resin-rich region; the stress of the carbon fibers in poor resin region was greater than that in the resin-rich region; the maximum stress of composites appeared in the interface layers when the temperature ranged from 350 to 500 °C, and the maximum thermal stress was 196.9–281.3 MPa, as well as the maximum shear stress was 98.2–140.3 MPa; the maximum peeling stress perpendicular to the fiber directions was 53.7–157.3 MPa; the strain of the interface layers and carbon fibers were the smaller than that of the resin matrix, whose maximum strain ranged from 0.0622 to 0.0889. The structure destruction of the composites was caused by both the peeling stress and the interfacial shear stress in recycling.