Combined Approach for the Characterization of Composites Manufactured by RFI and Industrial Application

Abstract

A combined approach is proposed here to characterize composite structures made of a recent semi-preg called HexFIT® developed by Hexcel Composites® for resin film infusion (RFI). Physicochemical and mechanical tests were first carried out on specimens obtained by oven cured vacuum bag molding and then compared with autoclave cured specimens. Non-destructive evaluation techniques (US, IR, and RX) were used to sample specimens in manufactured plates for mechanical testing taking into account the effects of the process conditions. Multi-instrumented tensile tests undertaken on specimens with different widths allowed us to highlight limitations in classical tensile tests. The manufacture of a structural part called corner fitting is also presented taking into account the effects of the stacking sequence and the cure cycle. The preliminary results highlight the need to correctly define experimental protocols taking into account manufacture conditions and the inner architecture of the reinforcements.