Prediction of fiber-directional flexural strength of carbon fiber-reinforced polypropylene based on time–temperature superposition principle

Abstract

This study verified that the time–temperature superposition principle for fiber-directional flexural strength can be applied to thermoplastic composites undergoing instantaneous fast phenomena such as impact failure and long-term phenomena such as creep failure, by constructing the time- and temperature-dependent master curve of relaxation modulus of thermoplastic resin. The master curve could be transformed to another master curve that predicts fiber-directional flexural strength of carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites based on the micro-buckling failure theory expressed mainly by the resin’s elastic modulus. The experimental results obtained from high-speed bending test, static bending test at various temperatures, and creep bending test demonstrated that kink band failure occurred on the compressive surface of the specimen at every test condition. This validation and verification related to thermoplastic composites made it possible to predict static and dynamic flexural strengths at arbitrary temperature and creep flexural strength.