This article investigates the interlaminar shear behavior and damage detection of woven carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite laminates at cryogenic temperatures. Short beam shear tests were performed at room temperature and liquid hydrogen temperature (20 K), and the temperature dependence of the apparent interlaminar shear strength was examined. The electrical resistance of the composite specimens was also monitored during the tests. A detailed observation of the tested specimens was made to assess the damage, and the relationship between the damage and the electrical resistance was discussed. In addition, the stress, strain and current density distributions in the short beam shear specimens were determined by the finite element method. The numerical results were used to better understand and explain the experimental findings.

This paper studies the interlaminar shear and electrical resistance responses of woven-carbon-fiber-reinforced-polymer (CFRP) composite laminates subjected to fatigue loading at cryogenic temperatures. Fatigue tests were conducted on the composite specimens at room temperature and liquid-hydrogen temperature (20 K) using the short beam shear method, and measurements of the specimen electrical resistance were made during the tests. Also, the tested specimens were examined by microscopy to observe the damage and the failure mode. In addition, a finite-element analysis was performed to examine the stress distributions in the short beam shear specimens. The dependence of the interlaminar shear fatigue performance of the woven-CFRP laminates on the temperature was discussed, and the applicability of the electrical resistance method for assessing the fatigue failure was demonstrated.

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