Effect of Clay on Tensile, Flex and Fatigue Behavior of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Epoxy

In this study, the nanophased epoxy with 2 wt.% clay was utilized in a vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) set up with carbon fabric to fabricate laminated composites. The effectiveness of clay addition on mechanical properties of composites has been evaluated by tensile, flexural and fatigue test. The tensile and flexural strengths improved by 5.7% and 13.5%, respectively as compared to the neat composite. The fatigue strength was also improved significantly. Based on the experimental result, a linear damage model combined with the Weibull distribution function has been established to describe static failure processing of neat and nanophased carbon/epoxy. The simulated stress strain curves from the model are in good agreement with the test data. Simulated results show that damage processing of neat and nanophased carbon/epoxy described by bimodal Weibull distribution function.