Effect of Tailored Fiber Placement Parameters on Carbon Fiber/Epoxy Composite

Abstract

The recent emergence of fiber placement manufacturing processes such as tailored fiber placement (TFP) is giving new avenues to the design of parts with tailored properties and net shape fabrication. However, this design flexibility is usually at the expanse of the inplane mechanical properties. In this study, the impact of the number of plies and the stitching material on the in-plane mechanical properties is investigated. Carbon fiber preforms were fabricated by TFP and were impregnated by RTM to produce composite plates. Image analysis from computer tomography was used to determine the through-the-thickness profile of fiber volume fractions. Tensile tests with digital image correlation (DIC) and interlaminar shear strength tests were performed on the specimens. It was found that there is a significant variation of the fiber volume fraction thru the thickness of the specimens. The stitching material and the number of layers had low impact on the tensile properties. Kevlar® stiches have given better results than polyester and Nomex® in terms of interlaminar shear strength.