Experimental and numerical investigation of humid ageing effects on CFRP laminates crashworthiness behaviours

Abstract

Two different quasi-static crushing tests have been performed to investigate the effects of humid ageing on the crashworthiness behaviours of the Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) laminates. Four different types of specimens made from T700/M21 and Cytec woven CFRP materials were placed in a humidity-controlled chamber at 90% relative humidity (RH) and 80 °C until they reach saturation before performing the crushing tests. From the result obtained, the behaviour of the force–displacement curves, crushing morphologies and damage mechanisms between humid ageing specimens and the sane specimens are very similar. Nevertheless, in terms of ply mean crushing stress analysis it is quantitatively proven that there are drops nearly to 10% on the CFRP laminates have been exposed to the humidity environment. This result has been verified numerically via an existing Abaqus/Explicit model which demonstrates a good agreement with the experimental results.