Model for thermal degradation of carbon fiber filled poly(ether ether ketone)

APC-2 is a carbon fiber filled poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK), it is a composite used mainly for aeronautical applications. It can be processed with an automated tape placement process and the material can be melted with a laser. The laser is powerful and can easily degrade the material. Experiments were performed on APC-2 using different laser irradiances and different exposure durations. Degradation was determined using infrared spectroscopy. A new peak which appeared after the experiments is directly linked to the degradation process. A good agreement was found with previous works published in the literature. A model was developed to calculate the degree of degradation after heating. It was validated with experiments and data from the literature.