The interface in carbon fibre composites

✍ Scribed by M.R. Piggott

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 588 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-6223
• DOI: 10.1016/0008-6223(89)90199-1

✦ Synopsis

Carbon fibres are used for increasing the strength and stiffness of polymers and the strength of metals and ceramics. These improvements depend on the transfer of stress from the matrix (polymer, metal or ceramic) to the fibres across the interface. Thus, the interface, or rather, the thin inte~hasiai region that exists between fibres and matrix, may be regarded as a key element in a fibre composite. In-the case of reinforced thermosets, such as epoxy or polyester resins, tests using single fibres suggest that the interuhase is strone but brittle. These single fibre experiments are described, and it is shown that it is incdrrect to assigi a shear stress to the iebonding process. Instead, it is characterised by a work of fracture of some tens to hundreds of Jmd2. This result explains why short aligned fibre composites have stress-strain plots which are linear up to failure, and suggests that frictional effects at the interface are unimportant for the tensile properties of these composites.