About Shear Properties of Plain Weave Fabric CFRP at High Temperatures: Analytical and Experimental Approaches

The in-plane and interlaminar characteristics of plain weave fabric Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composites are studied. The influence of the temperature exposure, below the glass transition state of the composites, on these properties are studied. The in-plane shear properties, shear strength and shear modulus are affected by the temperature exposure. The in-plane shear strength has dropped by 44.36% for the specimens tested at 120 °C compared to the specimens tested at room temperature. The interlaminar shear strength, however, are largely unaffected by the temperature exposure. The interlaminar shear strength of the plain weave fabric CFRP largely depends on the cross-sectional area of the specimen than the temperature exposure. Finally, several prediction models are used for estimating the shear properties of the composites exposed to different temperatures. Among them, Hawileh model fits very well with the experimental data for predicting the in-plane shear strength, while Wang model fits well for the shear modulus. In addition to these, fracture surfaces of the in-plane shear and interlaminar shear specimens are characterized under optical microscopy to understand the failure modes and how they are influenced by the temperature exposures.