TY - JOUR T1 - Delamination behaviour of very high modulus carbon/epoxy marine composites A1 - Baral,N A1 - Davies,Peter A1 - Baley,C A1 - Bigourdan,Benoit AD - IFREMER, Ctr Brest, Mat & Struct Grp, F-29280 Plouzane, France. AD - Trimaran Groupama, F-56100 Lorient, France. AD - Univ Bretagne Sud, L2PIC, F-56321 Lorient, France. UR - https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/3772/ DO - 10.1016/j.compscitech.2007.07.022 KW - Mixed mode KW - Fracture toughness KW - Polymers KW - Carbon fibres KW - Delamination N2 - This paper presents a study of the delamination resistance Of unidirectional carbon fibre reinforced epoxy composites manufactured from prepreg for racing yacht mast applications. Fibre modulus has been varied from 290 to 640 GPa. Two manufacturing methods, oven cure under vacuum and autoclave, were used to produce samples. Results show that delamination resistance tinder mode I and mixed mode loading decreases as fibre modulus increases. The manufacturing route affects G, values by modifying interlaminar layer geometry but does not change the trend of lower toughness with increasing fibre modulus. For the pitch composites crack propagation is observed within the fibres, in addition to more usual matrix and interface cracking. For the very high modulus fibre composites it is no longer possible to measure the Gill,, fracture envelope with the MMB specimen, compression failure occurs before delamination. FE analysis and instrumented specimens have been used to define the limits to the current standard test method for these materials. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Y1 - 2008/03 PB - Elsevier JF - Composites Science and Technology SN - 0266-3538 VL - 68 IS - 3-4 SP - 995 EP - 1007 ID - 3772 ER -