Experimental characterization of thermo-oxidation-induced shrinkage and damage in polymer–matrix composites

This paper focuses on the experimental characterization of thermo-oxidation in carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) exposed to “high” temperatures (up to 150 °C) and “high” oxygen pressures (up to 5 bars), at the microscopic scale. Unidirectional IM7/977-2 composite specimens were aged at 150 °C under atmospheric air and under oxygen pressure (1.7 bars and 5 bars): periodic tests were carried out to characterize degradation phenomena after different aging times. The thermo-oxidation-induced resin shrinkage and fiber/matrix debonding were measured on the CFRP sample surface by confocal interferometric microscopy (CIM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that thermo-oxidation-induced degradation strongly depends on aging time, distance between fibers and partial oxygen pressure.