Quasi-static and fatigue tensile behavior of a 3D rotary braided carbon/epoxy composite

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study of the quasi-static and fatigue behaviour of a three-dimensional braided carbon/epoxy composite. The study involves a three-dimensional braided carbon preform and composite samples produced at 3TEX Inc. on their 576-carrier rotary braiding machine. The first part of the paper describes the preform and composite sample fabrication procedures, the fiber volume fraction determination and the porosity evaluation using micro-computed tomography three-dimensional observation. The second part is devoted to experimental study of the quasi-static tensile response of the material, including the acoustic emission monitoring and the microscopic damage detection. The third part is dedicated to the fatigue tensile–tensile behaviour illustrated by the fatigue life curve and the micro-computed tomography images of the damage imparted after different number of cycles. The fourth part presents results of the quasi-static tensile tests of preliminarily cyclically loaded specimens. These results provide significant insight into the influence of the damage imparted during fatigue loading on the subsequent quasi-static behaviour

The fatigue of carbon fibre reinforced plastics - A review

“…The results from their study are significant, as they show that 3D braided CFRP is the only CFRP architecture with properties improved upon those of standard UD-CFRP. 3D non-crimp woven and non-crimp stitched are similar to standard UD-CFRP under low cycle fatigue, but are inferior under high cycle fatigue [159].…”

“…3D braided composites processing technologies are fairly complex and can be grouped into three categories: 3D braided fabrics, 3D axial-braided fabrics, multiaxis 3D braided fabrics, as reported in Bilisik review [158]. From a mechanical standpoint, 3D braided CFRP are serious competitors as they exhibit high stiffness, strength energy absorption and fatigue properties [159]. Furthermore, 3D braided CFRP are flexible, allowing for the easier manufacture of complex parts (near-net-shape) than standard CFRP counterparts [137].…”

“…Furthermore, 3D braided CFRP are flexible, allowing for the easier manufacture of complex parts (near-net-shape) than standard CFRP counterparts [137]. Quasi static tests in tension display an initial stiffening effect due possibly to changes in crystalline orientations [160] and local fibre orientations in the loading direction [159], before softening occurs due through the accumulation of damage. Carvelli et al [161] compared the normalised S-N curves of UD-CFRP with 3D braided CFRP in (T-T).…”

Open hole tension and compression behavior of 3D braided composites

“…Ko carried out a series of studies on the 3D braided composites study and introduced a fiber architecture–based model, the Fabric Geometry Model (FGM), to predict strength and modulus of 3D braided composite. In the subsequent years, a few experimental studies have been carried out on the fatigue behavior of braided composites . Hua found the 3D braided composites contain damage better and have a significant lower level damage area than laminated composites .…”

An Experimental and Numerical Study of Three-Dimensional Fatigue Damage in Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers

“…Another major application of developed forms of 3D warp knitted spacer fabrics is textile reinforced concrete [29]. [27] As opposed to 2D braids, 3D braided composites combine shear stiffness and strength, reduce or eliminate delamination, and provide high impact resistance, high conformability and high torsional rigidity [30]. One last form of 3D textiles are the crimp-free 3D…”