In order to meet the new environmental regulations about the low carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere the automotive industries have been working to develop lightweight composite body structures for the new passenger cars. The use of NCF (Non-Crimp Fabric) reinforced carbon composites in the luxury cars have now been stretched to the passenger cars. The in-plane deformation behaviour of bi-axial NCF based structural thermoset prepregs is determined and analysed keeping in view to their potential use in the car body parts. Two types of stitched carbon fabrics, pillar and tricot with an aerial weight of 400gsm of each, used in the epoxy based thermoset prepreg are considered for the measurement of in-plane shear behaviour. The de-facto standard methods of bias extension and picture frame tests for intraply shear characterisation have been used at the relevant processing conditions for high volume manufacturing applications. It has been observed that the prepreg deformation behaviour is significantly influenced by the selection of process parameters. Moreover, the suitability of each of the two methods for the particular types of NCF based thermoset prepregs will be discussed. Further to the above, the in-plane deformation tests have also been performed on the dry reinforcement of the same prepreg materials in order to determine the influence of resin on the drapeability of the material as well as its response to the processing parameters.
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