Fracture morphology of 2-D carbon-carbon composition

Out-of-plane tensile tests of a woven fabric carbon-carbon composite were performed in a scanning electron microscope equipped with a tensile stage and a videotape recording system. The composite was prepared from T-300 8-harness satin graphite fabric and a phenolic resin. The (0/90/0/90/0 sub 1/2) sub 2 laminate, with a Theta describing the orientation of the warp fibers of the fabric, was cured at 160 C and pyrolized at 871 C. This was followed by four cycles of resin impregnation, curing, and pyrolysis. A micrograph of the cross section of the composite is presented. Inspection of the specimen fracture surface revealed that the filaments had no residual matrix bonded to them. Further inspection revealed that the fracture was interlaminar in nature. Failure occurred where filaments of adjacent plies had the same orientation. Thus it is postulated that improvement in transverse tensile strength of 2-D carbon-carbon depends on the improvement of the filament-matrix bond strength.