Improving the delamination resistance and impact damage tolerance of carbon fibre-epoxy composites using multi-scale fibre toughening
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Ravindran, Role
Ladani, Raj
Kinloch, Anthony
Wang, Chun
Mouritz, Adrian
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This paper presents an experimental investigation into improvements to the interlaminar fracture toughness, low-velocity impact damage resistance and compression-after-impact (CAI) strength of continuous carbon fibre-epoxy composite laminates toughened with multi-scale carbon nano- and micro-fillers spanning the nanometer to millimeter length scales. The fillers used in the epoxy matrix of the composite laminates were carbon nanofibres (CNFs) and short carbon fibres (SCFs). Using these two fillers together caused a less-than-additive improvement to the mode I fracture toughness. However, when used together, they promoted a synergistic (i.e. greater-than-additive) increase to the steady-state mode II toughness, compared to using the fillers separately. Hybridising the CNFs with the SCFs also improved the low energy impact damage resistance (up to 24%) and CAI strength (up to 29%) of the laminate at various impact energies. The key toughening mechanisms imparted by the CNFs and SCFs, when used separately or in combination, are described in the paper
Date Issued
2021-11
Date Acceptance
2021-08-20
Citation
Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 2021, 150, pp.1-14
ISSN
1359-835X
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
1
End Page
14
Journal / Book Title
Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
Volume
150
Copyright Statement
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359835X21003420?via%3Dihub
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Engineering, Manufacturing
Materials Science, Composites
Engineering
Materials Science
Carbon Fibres A
Nanoparticles B
Compression after impact B
Fracture toughness
LOW-VELOCITY IMPACT
INTERLAMINAR FRACTURE-TOUGHNESS
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH
MODE-I
PERFORMANCE
CFRP
MATRIX
ENHANCEMENT
IMPROVEMENT
NANOFIBRES
Materials
0901 Aerospace Engineering
0912 Materials Engineering
0913 Mechanical Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-08-25