ON THE VOID CONSOLIDATION MECHANISMS OF CONTINOUS FIBER REINFORCED THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES

摘要

Void consolidation mechanisms of oven vacuum bag consolidation of unidirectional carbon fiberthermoplastic matrix composites were investigated. The statistical distribution of void content(size, spatial location and number density) of AS4 carbon/PEEK prepreg was quantified usingoptical microscopy and image analysis. The kinetics of void content reduction were studiedthrough a series of oven vacuum bag consolidation experiments for unidirectional and cross-plylaminates processed for 2, 4 and 5 hours at 380C°. Results show a monotonic reduction inaverage void content achieving essentially void free laminates after 5 hours of consolidation atthis process temperature. Data reduction provides details on the evolution of statisticaldistributions of void content, void size and spatial location of voids versus process time.Mechanisms of void content are discussed and results are correlated to model estimates.