Abstract
An experimental investigation of the mode-II dynamic fracture behavior of carbon fiber/epoxy composites when exposed to moisture intake in excess of 1 wt% was conducted. In particular, one goal was to investigate if the different moisture intake methods result in different dynamic fracture responses. Experiments were performed by launching a projectile from a gas gun onto pre-notched unidirectional carbon fiber/epoxy rectangular specimens manufactured in-house. Additionally, the material was characterized in-house to account for material property degradation due to water intake. Two different aging techniques were used to obtain the desired moisture contents. First, hygrothermal aging was used to obtain 1.5 wt% moisture uptake by having samples submerged in water at $$65\,^\circ$$ C. Second, submersion in water at room temperature was used to obtain the same effect, resulting in longer soaking times. Ultra high-speed photography combined with digital image correlation were used to extract stress intensity factors from each experiment. The experiment successfully obtained dominant mode-II loading of the crack. It was found that carbon fiber/epoxy samples with no significant moisture content had a a higher mode-II critical stress intensity factor compared to samples that were aged. Additionally, no significant differences were found between the different types of aging techniques.
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