STRUCTURE REORGANIZATION DURING THE RHEOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF CONTINUOUS FIBER-REINFORCED COMPOSITES IN PLANE SHEAR

An experimental study is made of the flow of a continuous fibre-reinfo rced laminate subject to plane shear. An apparatus has been constructe d in which a plate can be withdrawn from a composite comprising of lay ers of aligned fibres set within a resin. Experiments are performed on a 'model' composite consisting of nylon fibres in a Newtonian matrix. Measurements of the longitudinal and transverse viscosities of single layers for different fibre concentrations have been made and compared with those obtained from a linear oscillator. During the experiments considerable structure reorganization and the formation of resin layer s were detected. The origins of these phenomena and their effect on th e results obtained are discussed.