Monitoring Failure Behaviour of Pultruded CFRP Composites by Electrical Resistance Measurement

The failure behaviours of unidirectional pultruded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites were monitored by the electrical resistance measurement during tensile loading, three-point-bending, interlaminar shear loading. The tensile failure behaviour of carbon fiber tows was also investigated by the electrical resistance measurement. Infrared thermography non-destructive evaluation was performed in real time during tensile test of CFRP composites to validate the change of microdamage in the materials. Experiment results demonstrated that the CFRP composites and carbon fiber tows were damaged by different damage mechinsms during tensile loading, for the CFRP composites, mainly being in the forms of matrix damage and the debonding between matrix and fibers, while for the carbon fiber tows, mainly being in the forms of fiber fracture. The correlation between the infrared thermographs and the change in the electrical resistance could be regarded as an evidence of the damage mechanisms of the CFRP composites. During three-point-bending loading, the main damage forms were the simultaneity fracture of matrix and fibers firstly, then matrix cracking and the debonding between matrix and fiber were carried out. This results can be shown in Fig. 9(a) and (b). During interlaminar shear loading, the change in the electrical resistance was related to the damage degree of interlaminar structure. Electrical resistance measurement was more sensitive to the damage behaviour of the CFRP composites than the stress/time curve.