Abstract
The polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based and pitch-based carbon (micron level) fiber-reinforced nanoparticle (nano level) filled polyimide based hierarchical composites have been fabricated using a vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VaRTM) and autoclave curing. The carbon fibers used in this study were high tensile strength PAN-based(T1000GB) and high modulus pitch-based (K13D) carbon fibers. Fiber orientations of the hierarchical composites were set to [0_<(T1000GB)>/0_(K13D)>]_<2S>. The fiber volume fraction was 50 vol%. Polyimide used in this study was a commercially available polyimide precursor solution (Skybond 703). three different types of nanoparticle (25nm-C, 20-30nm-β-SiC and 130nm-β-SiC) and particle volume fraction was 5.0 vol% used for the inclusion. The tensile properties of the hybrid composites have been investigated. For 25nm-C and 20-30inn-β-SiC nanoparticle filled hierarchical and unfilled hybrid composites, the tensile stress-strain curves show a complicated shape without instantaneous failure.
