Abstract
Carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites are highly desirable for automotive and wind energy applications due to advantages associated with weight reduction, high stiffness and strength, durability, and recyclability. The high cost of carbon fiber has been a limiting factor in its widespread adoption in non-aerospace applications. A low cost (estimated < $11 per kg) wide tow (450-600k) carbon fiber derived from textile grade polyacrylonitirile precursor, and hence called Textile Grade Carbon Fiber (TCF) is introduced in this paper. Fundamental aspects of the TCF are discussed along with a detailed characterization of its mechanical properties. Two manufacturing processes relevant to automotive and wind energy applications are considered, namely-compression molding and resin infusion. At various stages the TCF has been compared to commercial non-aerospace 50k carbon fiber composite. Detailed physical and mechanical properties including tensile, flexural, compression, and interlaminar shear properties are reported and compared to non-aerospace carbon fiber composite. The results provide a means for designers and end-users in the automotive and wind energy sector to consider different forms of economical non-aerospace carbon fibers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 108156 |
| Journal | Composites Part B: Engineering |
| Volume | 198 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 1 2020 |
Funding
Notice of Copyright This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ). The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI)-The Composites Institute. The information, data, and work presented herein was funded in part by the US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, under Award Number DE-EE006926. The authors acknowledge the Composites Team at The University of Tennessee and Tina Summers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for their assistance. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI)-The Composites Institute. The information, data, and work presented herein was funded in part by the US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy , under Award Number DE-EE006926 . The authors acknowledge the Composites Team at The University of Tennessee and Tina Summers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for their assistance.
Keywords
- Automotive applications
- Composites engineering
- Mechanical properties
- Non-aerospace
- Textile grade carbon fiber
- Wide tow
- Wind energy
- Wind turbine blades