Effect of Fabrication Defects on Elastic and Fatigue Properties of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite
摘要
In the present work, a vacuum-bagging resin infusion microwave curing process is implemented to manufacture carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composite (CFRPCs) laminate. The manufactured composite has two distinct volume fractions of fabrication defects void 0.785 and 1.51% by volume. Mechanical properties like ultimate tensile strength, elastic modulus, and fatigue life cycles are predicted at room temperature using a computer-controlled dynamic universal testing machine. Further, the fatigue life of fabricated composites is predicted at different cyclic load amplitudes (40, 60, and 80% of UTS) by considering the stress ratio (R = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9). Fabrication defects like void volume fractions are calculated and correlated with the composite material's mechanical properties and fatigue life cycles. The optical morphology of the composite materials before and after the failure is analysed using scanning electron microscopes. Mechanical and fatigue strength are significantly affected by the voids present in the composite as fabrication defects.