Mechanical and fatigue properties of long carbon fiber reinforced plastics at low temperature

The mechanical properties of long unidirectional (UD) and crossply (CR) carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) were investigated at a low temperature (−196 °C). The CFRPs were fabricated from 60 vol.% carbon fiber and epoxy resin. The bending strength of the UD-CFRP was approximately twice that of the CR-CFRP. The high strength of the UD-CFRP was directly attributed to the amount of carbon fiber oriented along the loading direction: 60% for UD-CFRP compared with 30% for CR-CFRP. The low-temperature (−196 °C) tensile and fatigue strengths of the UD-CFRP were over 1.5 times greater than those at room temperature (20 °C). This was attributed to the increased epoxy strength at low temperatures along with the internal compressive stress arising from the different thermal expansion coefficients of the carbon fiber and epoxy. Both the epoxy strength and internal compressive strength were employed as factors in a compound law to numerically estimate the low-temperature tensile strength. This work presents a systematic analysis for changes in the CFRP material properties at low temperatures.