Correlation between post fire behavior and microstructure degradation of aeronautical polymer composites

• Published in: Materials & Design Vol. 74; pp. 76 - 85
• Main Authors: Benoit, Vieille, Alexis, Coppalle, Clément, Keller, M-Rose, Garda, Quentin, Viel, Eric, Dargent
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 05-06-2015; Elsevier
• Subjects: Bundles; Carbon fabrics; Combustion; Engineering Sciences; Fire behavior; Fires; Fluxes; Laminates; Mechanical properties; Microstructure; Reinforcement; Thermal degradation; Thermoplastic; Thermosetting; Thermosetting; Carbon fabrics; Fire behavior; Thermoplastic; Thermal degradation
• ISSN: 0261-3069; 0264-1275
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matdes.2015.03.002

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•Prior fire exposure is more detrimental to the tensile mechanical properties of C/Epoxy than to the ones of C/PPS laminates.•A correlation has been established between the residual properties and the thermal decomposition of polymer-based composites.•Char yield is similar in studied materials.•Melted PPS matrix within the carbon fibers network maintains a partial bonding contrary to C/Epoxy laminates.
The influence of fire conditions on the thermo-physical properties of carbon fibers woven-ply PPS and epoxy has been investigated. More specifically, this work was aimed at comparing the changes on laminates meso- and microstructure due to increasing heat fluxes, and depending on matrix nature. The residual tensile mechanical properties were compared considering the specific thermal decomposition of thermosetting- and thermoplastic-based composites, with a particular attention paid to the char formation along with the mass loss. For the range of heat fluxes studied (up to 50kW/m2), the post-fire tensile mechanical properties of PPS-based laminates are significantly higher than those of C/Epoxy laminates (about twice higher at 50kW/m2), not due to the char yield which is similar in the studied materials (about 80%), but rather to a better residual cohesion of the fibrous reinforcement at both microscale (within fiber bundles) and mesoscale (intra and inter-ply).