Thermal Fatigue in Carbon Fibre Polymer-Matrix Composites, Monitored in Real Time by Electrical Resistance Measurements

Abstract

Thermal fatigue and temperature of a continuous carbon fiber epoxy-matrix composite were simultaneously monitored by measurement of the contact electrical resistivity of the interlaminar interface. A temperature increase caused the resistivity to decrease reversibly within each thermal cycle, while thermal fatigue caused the resistivity to increase. The increase took the form of a spike increase at the maximum temperature of a cycle in an early stage of fatigue, and took the form of an abrupt increase of the baseline in a later stage of fatigue.