Delivering Interlaminar Reinforcement in Composites through Electrospun Nanofibres

Thomas Pozegic, Simon King, Mohamad Fotouhi, Vlad Stolojan, S. Ravi P Silva, Ian Hamerton

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)
257 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Electrospun nonwoven veils comprising thermoplastic fibres (average diameter 400–600 nm) based on polysulfone (PSU), polyamide (PA-6,6), and polyetherimide (PEI) have been fabricated and used as interlaminar reinforcements in carbon fibre composites containing a commercial epoxy resin (8552/IM7). Samples were tested for their interlaminar properties and improvements were observed in the initial mode I interlaminar toughness of 30% (PA-6,6), 36% (PEI), and 44% (PSU), while improvements of 7% (PSU) and 8% (PEI) were observed in the propagation of the mode I interlaminar toughness. A reduction of 11% was observed for the propagation of the mode I interlaminar toughness for PA-6,6. Post-testing analysis of the cross-section and the fracture surface revealed that the crack front avoids the reinforcement significantly for PA-6,6. For mode II, however, this failure mechanism leads to improvements of 30% in interlaminar toughness for the PA-6,6, whereas the other reinforcements display negligible (PEI) and 31% reduction (PSU) interlaminar toughness.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages18
JournalAdvanced Manufacturing: Polymer and Composites Science
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Sept 2019

Keywords

  • PEI
  • PSU
  • PA-6,6
  • Interlaminar
  • electrospinning
  • nanofibres
  • mode I
  • mode II

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