Time-temperature superposition of flexural creep response of carbon fiber PEKK composites manufactured using different prepreg stacking sequence

Abstract

In this work, the long-term creep response of high-performance carbon fiber PEKK (CF/PEKK) composites was evaluated by performing extrapolated short-term flexural creep tests at various temperatures. The time-temperature superposition principle (TTSP) with vertical as well as horizontal shifting was used to generate master curves at reference temperatures of 120°C. Satin weave-based CF/PEKK prepregs were used to manufacture eight-layer composites via compression molding, with three different stacking sequences: (a) zero-direction [0]8 (b) cross-ply [0, 90]4 and (c) quasi-isotropic [90, −45, 45, 0]2 s. The flexural properties under three-point bending arrangement in a universal testing machine were also evaluated. A dynamic mechanical thermal analyzer (DMTA) in three-point bending mode was used to evaluate the temperature-dependent viscoelastic properties of the three types of composites. The creep and creep-recovery behavior was evaluated at 40°C, 80°C, 120°C, 160°C and 200°C. To construct a master curve, extrapolated short-term isothermal creep tests were performed from 120°C to 180°C at the intervals of 10°C. The predicted master curve represents the creep behavior of composites over more than 10 years. It was shown that the quasi-isotropic CF/PEKK composites exhibited 27% and 12% higher creep resistance at 120°C as compared to zero-direction and cross-ply laminates, respectively. Higher flexural modulus (23%) and flexural strengths (33%) were also exhibited by the quasi-isotropic CF/PEKK composites. The final thickness of quasi-isotropic laminates was 8% lower than the 0o laminates. After analyzing the cross-sections of the composites, it was proposed that the superior mechanical properties of the quasi-isotropic laminates could be due to enhanced nesting between neighboring prepreg layers during the compression molding process, which resulted in closer packing of the fibers. It has been shown that the prepreg stacking sequence could affect the creep behavior and flexural properties of the compression-molded CF/PEKK composites.