Interlaminar Fracture Behavior of Carbon Fiber/Polyimide Composites Toughened by Interleaving Thermoplastic Polyimide Fiber Veils

Carbon fiber reinforced thermosetting polyimide (CF/TSPI) composites were interleaved with thermally stable thermoplastic polyimide (TPPI) fiber veils in order to improve the interlaminar fracture toughness without sacrificing the heat resistance. Both of the mode I and mode II interlaminar fracture toughness (GIC and GIIC) for the untoughened laminate and TPPI fiber veils interleaved laminates were characterized by the double cantilever beam (DCB) test and end notch flexure (ENF) test, respectively. It is found that the TPPI fiber veils interleaved laminates exhibit extremely increased fracture toughness than the untoughened one. Moreover, the areal density of TPPI greatly affected the fracture toughness of laminates. A maximum improvement up to 179% and 132% on GIC and GIIC is obtained for 15 gsm fiber veils interleaved laminate, which contributes to the existence of bicontinuous TPPI/TSPI structure in the interlayer according to the fractography analysis. The interlaminar fracture behavior at elevated temperatures for 15 gsm fiber veils interleaved laminate were also investigated. The results indicated that the introduction of thermally stable TPPI fiber veils could enhance the fracture toughness of CF/TSPI composites by exceeding 200% as compared to the untoughened one even as tested at 250 °C.