Abstract
This study examined the effect of microstructure on elastic properties of spread carbon fiber (SCF)/epoxy (EP) laminates containing microcapsules. Finite element analysis (FEA) was performed using a three-dimensional representative volume element (RVE) models to predict elastic properties of the SCF/EP laminates containing microcapsules. Two RVE models with well dispersed and aggregated microcapsules were constructed. The well-dispersion model considers well dispersed microcapsules in the SCF/EP laminates and the aggregation model presents aggregation of microcapsules in interlayer of the SCF/EP laminates. The results indicated that the predicted shear modulus increased with decreasing microcapsule volume fraction. Moreover, the predicted shear modulus of well-dispersion models was higher than that of aggregation models. It is expected that well dispersion of microcapsules leads to improvement in elastic properties of the SCF/EP laminates containing microcapsules. Furthermore, as the microcapsule diameter decreased, the predicted shear modulus slightly increased.
