Cooling rate influences in carbon fibre/PEEK composites. Part III: Impact damage performance

  • Shang Lin Gao
  • , Jang Kyo Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

101 Scopus citations

Abstract

The effect of cooling rate on impact damage performance of carbon fibre/polyether ether ketone (PEEK) matrix composite is characterised based on the instrumented drop-weight impact test, scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) damage evaluation and compression-after-impact (CAI) test. Judging from the incipient impact load, incipient impact energy and total damage area, the ability to resist damage initiation upon impact was higher in the order of fast-cooled carbon/PEEK, slow-cooled carbon/PEEK and carbon/epoxy laminates. Furthermore, the threshold impact energy was higher and the CAI strength reduction rate was lower for the fast-cooled specimen than the slow-cooled counterpart, strongly indicating higher impact damage tolerance of the former system. The present study demonstrates that the impact damage performance and other important properties of carbon/PEEK composites can be optimised, if not maximised, by proper control of processing conditions, especially the cooling rate.

Original languageBritish English
Pages (from-to)775-785
Number of pages11
JournalComposites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
Volume32
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2001

Keywords

  • A. Carbon fibre
  • A. Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs)
  • B. Mechanical properties
  • Impact damage resistance

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