EXPERIMENTAL AND ANALYTICAL STUDIES OF SMART COMPOSITE REINFORCEMENT

The laboratory scale pultrusion process is developed to fabricate smar t fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials. The shear and tensile prop erties, i.e. strength and modulus, of the pultruded carbon/vinylester and glass/vinylester rods with and without optical fibers are determin ed. Microstructural analysis of the smart pultruded FRP is carried out using the optical microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The interfaces between the resin matrix and the acrylate and polyimide coated optical fibers are examined and interpreted in terms of the co ating's ability to resist high temperature and its compatibility with resin matrix. A micromechanical model of composite material, taking in to account the misorientation of fibers, is developed and the correspo nding constitutive equation is derived. The effect of small fiber miso rientation angle on the tensile and shear effective moduli of composit e material is investigated. The micro stress heterogeneity in fibers a nd matrix of composite is analyzed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.