THE THERMAL RESPONSE TO DEFORMATION TO FRACTURE OF A CARBON EPOXY COMPOSITE LAMINATE

The thermoelastic response to deformation of carbon-fibre/epoxy-resin composite laminates has been considered theoretically, and compared with experimental results. It is found that the surface temperature is strongly dependent on the near-surface, lay-up. The total thermal response to tensile testing to failure is also reported. The results indicate that a simple, but accurate, estimation of the yield strength in composites is possible by measuring the thermoelastic limit strength, and that microstructural 'events' are detectable by measuring the surface temperature with sufficiently high resolution.