Intralaminar Reinforcement for Biomimetic Toughening of Bismaleimide Composites Using Nanostructured Materials

Many conventional composite materials are composed of multiple layers of continuous fiber reinforced resin produced by lamination of b-staged prepreg and subsequent cure. These materials exhibit very high strength and stiffness in the plane, dominated by the properties of the fibers. The Achilles heel of such composites is the interlaminar strength, which is dependent on the strength of the unreinforced resin, often leading to failure by delamination under load. Current methods for increasing the interlaminar shear strength of composites consist of inserting translaminar reinforcement fibers through the entire thickness of a laminated composite, such as z-pin technology developed by Foster-Miller [1]. While effective, this technique adds several processing steps, including ultrasonic insertion of the z-pins into the laminate, subsequently causing a significant cost increase to laminated composites. Described in this paper is a process utilizing single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and vapor grown carbon nanofibers as reinforcing elements promoting interlaminar shear strength and toughness in carbon fiber/bismaleimide (BMI) resin composites. The resulting composites mimic the natural reinforcing mechanism utilized in insect cuticles. Three different methods of increasing the affinity of these carbon nanofillers for the BMI matrix were explored. The mechanical properties of these composites were assessed using end notch flexure testing. The results indicated that including nanofiller at the laminae interface could increase the interlaminar shear strength of carbon fiber/BMI composites by up to 58%. SEM micrographs revealed that the nanofiller successfully bridged the laminae of the composite, thus biomimicking the insect cuticle. Composite fabrication techniques developed on this program would have a wide variety of applications in space and aerospace structures including leading and trailing edges of aircraft wings.