Non-linear elastic behaviour of carbon fibres of different structural and mechanical characteristic

Five types of polyacrylonitrile, PAN, based carbon fibres, differing in modulus, breaking strain and in crystallite orientation, have been studied. Non-Hookean behaviour was investigated by computing the tangent tensile and compression moduli as a function of strain, from the axial stress-strain response obtained in standard tensile, compression, as well as in modified flexural tests of unidirectional carbon/epoxy composites. The dependences of the tensile modulus on tensile strain of the carbon fibres were extracted from data obtained in single-filament tensile tests. Analytical expresssions for the tensile modulus-tensile strain and compression modulus-compression strain dependences in the performed test were deduced. The structural characterization of the carbon fibres was performed by X-ray diffraction on bundle of parallel fibres. The interlayer spacing d(002) and the apparent lateral dimension of the crystallites L-c were deduced by processing the 002 diffraction profiles. The established modulus-strain dependences were correlated with the fibre characteristics (breaking strain and mean modulus values), as well as with the characteristic of the 002 difraction profile and the d(002) and L-c values.