Abstract
It is important to understand the contribution of out-of-plane properties in order to clarify the bending deformation of out-of-plane anisotropic material like the CFRTP (carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastics) in detail. The out-of-plane mechanical properties of CFRTP would be affected by matrix resin. So the analysis of the temperature-dependence of the matrix resin will be a very important. And a method for predicting the temperature-dependence of bending behavior is greatly helpful to the wide use of CFRTP. From this point of view, in this study, the theoretical model of temperature-dependent flexural elastic modulus of CFRTP focusing on viscoelastic properties of matrix resin was constructed and verified by use of polypropylene-based discontinuous CF mat reinforced thermoplastics (CMT) with in-plane isotropic. As a result, it was quantitatively clarified that the temperature-dependence of flexural modulus of CMT is due to viscoelastic property of matrix resin. And the contribution of out-of-plane shear modulus G13c to flexural modulus was also clarified quantitatively. These results indicate that the temperature-dependence of flexural modulus of CMT was able to be predicted by Young′s modulus E1c and out-of-plane shear modulus G13c influenced from viscoelastic property of matrix resin, volume fraction of fiber and coefficient configuration of fiber reinforcement by using the ordinary measurement method.
