Carbon fiber composite materials are found in a variety of Naval uses. Severe heat exposure during service has been shown by others to cause increasing degrees of mechanical failure due to fiber-matrix disbondment. Traditional non-destructive testing methods are only able to observe the mechanical damage that occurs as a result of thermal exposure and subsequent loading. Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) has been proposed as a non-destructive method to locate areas of thermal exposure and evaluate the degree of damage, leading to a prediction of the loss in mechanical properties. A custom LIF device was used to examine carbon fiber/epoxy composites subjected to a range of exposure temperatures and times. In order to elucidate the reason behind the shift in the fluorescence signature as well as the potential chemical causes of the decay in mechanical properties, Raman and FTIR microspectroscopy were used to observe the chemical changes resulting from thermal exposure.

Relationship between laser-induced fluorescence and matrix chemistry in thermally damaged polymer composites

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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