MODE-I DELAMINATION CHARACTERIZATION FORCARBON NANOFIBERS TOUGHENEDPOLYESTER/GLASSFIBER COMPOSITES

摘要

Polymer composite materials reinforced by continuous fibers have excellent in-plane strength,rnbut are usually weak against delamination. In this paper, an experimental study of using CarbonrnNanofibers (CNF) to improve the interlaminar fracture properties of glass fiber/polyesterrncomposites is presented. CNF were dispersed in the polyester resin and then CNF-resinrnsuspension was infused to impregnate a glass fiber preform using Vacuum Assisted ResinrnTransfer Molding (VARTM). The critical energy release rates of the Mode-I delamination (GIC)rnwere characterized for several composite samples with different CNF concentrations. Significantrnimprovement in the GIC was consistently observed as 1wt% CNF was added to toughen thernpolyester resin. Microscopy pictures showed that the fracture surfaces of the 1wt% CNFrntoughened polyester/glassfiber composite samples were more complex than the ones without thernCNF fillers.