Compression fatigue properties of z-pinned quasi-isotropic carbon/epoxy laminate with barely visible impact damage

This paper presents an experimental study into the use of z-pins to improve the compression fatigue properties of quasi-isotropic carbon fibre–epoxy composite containing barely visible impact damage (BVID). The study investigates the effect of increasing volume content of z-pins (up to 4%) on the ba...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Composite structures 2011-08, Vol.93 (9), p.2269-2276
Main Authors: Isa, M.D., Feih, S., Mouritz, A.P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Carbon fiber reinforced plastics
Carbon-epoxy composites
Composites
Compressing
Crack propagation
Exact sciences and technology
Fatigue
Fatigue (materials)
Fatigue failure
Forms of application and semi-finished materials
Fracture mechanics (crack, fatigue, damage...)
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Impact
Impact damage
Mechanical properties
Performance enhancement
Physics
Polymer industry, paints, wood
Polymer matrix composites
Solid mechanics
Structural and continuum mechanics
Technology of polymers
Z-pins
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Summary:This paper presents an experimental study into the use of z-pins to improve the compression fatigue properties of quasi-isotropic carbon fibre–epoxy composite containing barely visible impact damage (BVID). The study investigates the effect of increasing volume content of z-pins (up to 4%) on the barely visible impact damage resistance, post-impact compression fatigue properties, and fatigue damage mechanisms of a quasi-isotropic carbon–epoxy material. The study reveals new insights into the impact damage resistance of z-pinned composites. Z-pins induce different responses in the compression fatigue properties of the quasi-isotropic composite following low or high-energy impact loading. Z-pins proved ineffective at increasing the fatigue properties when the quasi-isotropic composite contained low-energy BVID. However, z-pins were effective at improving the fatigue performance of the composite with high-energy BVID, with the post-impact fatigue life and fatigue endurance limit increasing with the pin content. The improvement in fatigue performance is due solely to the increased resistance against high-energy impact damage imposed by the z-pins. It is also found that z-pins do not affect the fatigue mechanism or fatigue damage growth rate of the composite containing BVID.
ISSN:0263-8223
1879-1085
DOI:10.1016/j.compstruct.2011.03.015