Mechanical Performance of Pultruded Carbon Fiber/Vinyl Ester Composites Processed with Physically Dissimilar Sizing Agents

摘要

Panex 48K carbon fibers were sized with three dissimilar polymeric materials. The sizing agents tested were K-30 poly(vinylpyrrolidone), poly(hydroxyether), and poly(urethane). In addition. Panex 48K carbon fibers sized commercially with Z' and AS-4 12K carbon fibers sized commercially with G' were tested. The sized carbon fibers were processed into composites utilizing a pilot scale pultruder and a pultrudable vinyl-ester resin. Composites produced from the 48K carbon fibers sized with poly(urethane) had a compressive strength of 750 +- 50 MPa compared to the 660 +- 50 MPa observed with the composites produced from the AS-4 12K G' fiber. This result was surprising considering the inherent lower properties of the 48K carbon fibers compared to the 12K fibers. The compressive modulus was found to correlate with the fiber properties and were not a function of the sizing constituent. Flexural properties were found to correlate with both the fiber properties and the sizing constituent.