The Effects of Thermal Cycles on the Impact Fatigue Properties of Thermoplastic Matrix Composites

The effects of thermal cycles on the impact fatigue properties of unidirectional carbon fibre reinforced polyetherimide (PEI) matrix composites were investigated. During the thermal cycles, samples were immersed into boiling water (100 °C) and subsequently to ice water (0 °C), 50, 200 and 500 times. The changes in viscoelastic properties of the composites were investigated by means of dynamic mechanical thermal analyzer (DMTA). At the second step, thermal cycled composites were subjected to repeated impact loadings, with different impact energies. Instrumented impact test results were presented as a function of force, energy, deformation during the experiments. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) studies were done in order to understand the morphology of fractured samples after impact fatigue loading. The number of thermal cycles and applied impact energy of the hammer are found to have a great importance on the fracture morphology of repeatedly impacted material, as expected.