New designs of unidirectionally arrayed chopped strands by introducing discontinuous angled slits into prepreg

New designs of unidirectionally arrayed chopped strands (UACSs) are proposed to improve existing UACS laminates with continuous angled slits by introducing discontinuous angled slits into a unidirectional prepreg. Two slit patterns of staggered angled slits and bi-angled slits are designed. A paper cutter is employed to introduce slits into the prepreg. Quasi-isotropic UACS laminates with new slit patterns and existing continuous angled slits together with the conventional laminate without slits are fabricated for tensile tests. Hybrid laminates [90/0/90] with two unidirectional glass-fiber/epoxy plies and one UACS ply are fabricated for flowability tests. Experimental results reveal that newly designed UACS laminates possess higher strength and better flowability than existing UACS laminate.