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Abstract

Resin infusion process with/without the application of external pressure was employed for fabrication of unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced plastic composites. The prepared samples were tested under compression loads. Three kinds of fracture modes, viz., in-plane shear, complex fracture and through-thickness shear fractures were noticed. It was observed that samples fabricated with application of pressure exhibited in-plane and complex fracture modes whereas other samples displayed through-thickness fracture. Detailed fractographic analysis suggested that in-plane and through-thickness shear fractures resulted due to microbuckling of individual fibers; on the other hand, complex failure is governed by longitudinal splitting followed by microbuckling. Microbuckling directions for both in-plane and through-thickness shear fractures were established. These and other microstructral characterization results were analyzed and an effort was made to identify the reasons for variations in fracture modes and resulting compression properties.

Keywords

CFRP composites compression failure modes scanning electron microscope

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Fractographic analysis of compression failures in unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced plastic composites

Abstract

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