An Investigation into the Effect of Compaction on the Mechanical Performance of a 3D Reinforced Advanced Composite

Abstract

Industries such as aerospace, marine, automotive and construction are now embracing advanced composites processed using resin infusion techniques. These composites consist of complex fibrous reinforcements and polymeric matrices. They can offer lower costs and equivalent or greater performance than can composites produced via more expensive traditional techniques such as autoclaving. As a result they are gaining increasing acceptance. One such material is a 3D fibre reinforced composite which possesses superior strength and stiffness in the through-the-thickness (T-T-T) direction compared to 2D composites due to their T-T-T binder tows. However, due to the T-T-T binder it is harder to achieve the required high fibre volume fraction (V_f) for optimum performance. This paper investigates a 3D fibre reinforced composite and how its structure and mechanical properties are affected by increasing V_f.

Some preliminary results in this paper were presented as a conference paper at IMC23 in August 2006.