Correlation between post fire behavior and microstructure degradation of aeronautical polymer composites

Benoît Vieille (1) , Alexis Coppalle (2) , Clémént Keller (1) , M. Rose Garda (3) , Quentin Viel (3) , Eric Dargent (3)

1 GPM - Groupe de physique des matériaux
2 CORIA - Complexe de recherche interprofessionnel en aérothermochimie
3 AMME-LECAP EA 4528 International Laboratory - Laboratoire d’Etude et de Caractérisation des Amorphes et des Polymères

The influence of fire conditions on the thermo-physical properties of carbon fibers woven-ply PPS and epoxy has been investigated. More specifically, this work was aimed at comparing the changes on laminates meso-and microstructure due to increasing heat fluxes, and depending on matrix nature. The residual tensile mechanical properties were compared considering the specific thermal decomposition of thermosetting-and thermoplastic-based composites, with a particular attention paid to the char formation along with the mass loss. For the range of heat fluxes studied (up to 50 kW/m(2)), the post-fire tensile mechanical properties of PPS-based laminates are significantly higher than those of C/Epoxy laminates (about twice higher at 50 kW/m(2)), not due to the char yield which is similar in the studied materials (about 80%), but rather to a better residual cohesion of the fibrous reinforcement at both microscale (within fiber bundles) and mesoscale (intra and inter-ply). (c) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Benoît Vieille, Alexis Coppalle, Clémént Keller, M. Rose Garda, Quentin Viel, et al.. Correlation between post fire behavior and microstructure degradation of aeronautical polymer composites. Materials & Design, 2015, 74, pp.76--85. ⟨10.1016/j.matdes.2015.03.002⟩. ⟨hal-01612372⟩