Ultra-thin chopped carbon fiber tape-reinforced thermoplastics, which belong to a class of randomly oriented strands and are characterized by enhanced strength, stiffness, and formability properties, have been prepared via a paper-making method from ultra-thin thermoplastic prepregs. The failure of ultra-thin chopped carbon fiber tape-reinforced thermoplastics under static tensile loading was studied in detail using various observation techniques, such as high-speed camera imaging, thermography, and optical microscopy. The obtained results revealed that the tensile fracture of ultra-thin chopped carbon fiber tape-reinforced thermoplastics exhibited three main patterns: fiber breakage, splitting of chopped tapes, and pulling out of chopped tapes. In contrast to conventional randomly oriented strands, the utilization of ultrathin prepregs decreased the tensile strength scattering. An increase in the ultra-thin prepreg tape length resulted in an increase in the strength average magnitude, reaching saturation at a length of 18 mm. The results of this study can be used for constructing tensile strength prediction models and expanding the ultra-thin chopped carbon fiber tape-reinforced thermoplastics application range.
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