THERMALLY STIMULATED CREEP STUDY OF BISMALEIMIDE CARBON FIBER-COMPOSITE/

The correlation between structure/microstructure and thermomechanical properties has been investigated by the Thermally Stimulated Creep (TS C) technique in a high performance thermostable thermoset matrix compo site. The high resolving power of this technique allows us to analyse the alpha retardation mode. The kinetics of molecular movements libera ted at the glass transition has been investigated by the technique of fractional loading: the analysis of each elementary process gives the real compliance and the retardation time as a function of temperature. The values of the activation parameters show the existence of a: comp ensation phenomenon which characterizes the microstructure. It also gi ves access to the loss compliance of the composite material as a funct ion of temperature and frequency. The predictive calculation of loss c ompliance has been validated by the results obtained by dynamic mechan ical analysis (DMA).