The temperature effects on the fracture toughness of carbon fiber/RTM-6 laminates processed by VARTM

Author(s)

Mendonca Sales, Rita de Cassia ; Gusmao, Silas Rodrigo ; Gouvea, Ricardo Francisco ; Chu, Thomas ; Fernandez Marlet, Jose Maria ; Candido, Geraldo Mauricio ; Donadon, Mauricio Vicente

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: JOURNAL OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS; v. 51, n. 12, p. 1729-1741, MAY 2017.
• Web of Science Citations: 2

Abstract

The increasing use of composite in the aircraft industry has raised the interest for a better understanding of the failure process in these materials, which can be also influenced by the manufacturing process of the laminate. Some materials used in vacuum assisted resin transfer molding process have been studied in the open literature but very few data have been published for resin transfer molding-6 epoxy based laminates, in particular studies showing the influence of the temperature on the interlaminar fracture behavior of this type of laminates. The aim of this article is to investigate the interlaminar fracture behavior of resin transfer molding-6 based carbon composite laminates manufactured by vacuum assisted resin transfer molding subjected to Modes I and II at 25 degrees C and 80 degrees C The results show the influence of the temperature on the interlaminar fracture toughness of composites and provide a database to design composite aerostructures subjected to temperatures commonly experienced in civil aviation. The fracture aspects of the tested laminates were also investigated and directly related to the trend in results found for the fracture toughness values. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 06/61257-5 - Aircraft structures using composite materials
• Grantee: Sergio Frascino Muller de Almeida
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Research Partnership for Technological Innovation - PITE