Volume 10, Issue 1, 2001

Impact Properties of Interleaved Carbon Fibre Reinforced Epoxy Composite Tubes

Q. Yuan1, J. Karger-Kocsis2, L. Ye1

1 Centre for Advanced Materials Technology (CAMT), Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

2 Institute for Composite Materials Ltd., University of Kaiserslautern, D-67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany

(Received 10/00; accepted 1/01)

ABSTRACT

Composite tubes were manufactured using unidirectional carbon fibre (CF) reinforced epoxy (EP) prepreg with tough interleaf which consisted of random PET mat embedded in a modified epoxy resin. Impact tests were carried out in both the axial and transverse directions with different incident energy levels, and compression strength after impact of composite tubes was measured. The residual compressive strength of interleaved tubes was clearly higher than that of base tubes. Composite tubes subjected to multiple impacts in the transverse direction were evaluated. It was found that addition of interleaves could effectively reduce damage growth during repeated impact.

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