Low velocity impact and CAI of woven carbon fibre reinforced highly polymerized thermoplastic epoxy modified with submicron diameter glass fibres

The experimental study aimed to understand the effect of the highly polymerized thermoplastic epoxy matrix and of the submicron diameter glass fibres content on the impact and compression after impact (CAI) performance of woven carbon fibre reinforced composites. A thermoset epoxy system was also considered for the sake of comparison. The comparison highlighted the better impact performance of the composites with the thermoplastic epoxy matrix of higher weight-average molecular weight (Mw), which is further improved by the proper content of micro glass fibres. The enhanced impact damage tolerance was also demonstrated observing the damage imparted with surface laser morphology, infrared thermography and X-ray mu-CT.