A comparative study of the creep behavior of laminated composites: Effect of type of fiber and matrix

This paper presents the effect of matrix type on creep behavior at 80% loads of ultimate tensile strength of two laminated composites at different fiber and matrix system. For this, two types of laminated composites were manufactured based on two types of fibers (carbon fabric and glass fabric) with different matrix systems EPOCAST 50-A1 (EP50-A), Epoxy STR (STR) and Epoxy INJ812 (INJ). The tensile and creep behavior of each laminated composite was studied in the same test conditions. A microstructural study was also investigated by SEM-microscopy on the morphology of composite specimens after creep rupture failures at 80% of applied load. The obtained results showed clearly the influence of matrix type used on the tensile and creep behavior of studied composites. Indeed, it was noted that no creep rupture failures were observed in short-term (less than 4 h) for INJ/Carbon composite at tensile creep tests at 80% loads  of ultimate tensile strength. At the same ultimate tensile strength, EP50/Carbon composite  showed a best creep behavior up to 30 h and had a creep modulus higher than other laminated composites. The observation of rupture facets of all composite samples showed clearly that the rupture will take place in the direction of loading, creating voids at the interface resin/fiber. These are observed based on the nature of the matrix used.   Key words: Epoxy, aliphatic amine, cross-linked, carbon fabric, glass fabric, creep test, cyclic tensile test.