Internal shear damage evolution of CFRP laminates ranging from −100 °C to 100 °C using in-situ X-ray computed tomography

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composites have been widely used in aerospace due to their high specific stiffness, strength, and fatigue properties. However, the ambient temperature significantly influences CFRP's mechanical properties and damage evolution, deriving from the temperature effect on the microstructural behavior and the mesoscopic damage evolution. In this study, the temperature-dependent in-plane shear failure behavior of CFRP composites was investigated. In-situ X-ray Computed tomography (CT) tensile experiments of laminates ([45°/-45°]_2s) at RT, −100 °C, and 100 °C were carried out to study the in-plane shear failure mechanisms. The 3D fracture morphology was extracted with internal damage evolution process estimated and quantified. The in-situ 3D deformation fields of critical regions were acquired using the Digital Volume Correlation (DVC) method. The effect of temperature on strain field and the correlation between the high-strain region and the fracture location were analyzed. The results revealed the temperature correlations and failure mechanisms of CFRP's mechanical characteristics and internal damage evolution process. Compared to room temperature (RT), the delamination damage area of the sample increased by 80 % at 100 °C. Meanwhile, the shear modulus of CFRP decreases by 78.4 % from −100 °C to 100 °C, and the fracture strain increases by 95 % from RT to 100 °C. The DVC results indicated a dispersion of high-strain regions at −100 °C, reflecting the brittle damage characteristics, while an extensive ductile deformation region was captured at 100 °C. Fiber-matrix debonding is the dominant failure mode of composites under shear loading, whereas significant matrix cracking was observed at −100 °C and partial fiber pullout occurred at 100 °C.