Tensile and compressive properties of chopped carbon fiber tapes reinforced thermoplastics with different fiber lengths and molding pressures

Tensile and compressive behaviors of chopped carbon fiber tapes reinforced thermoplastics have been investigated by varying compression molding conditions (to study the effect of the molding pressure) and the tape length (to analyze the fiber length effect on the mechanical properties of produced composites). Fractographic analysis of prepared specimens conducted after the experiments indicated that the obtained modulus values were almost independent of both the tape length and molding pressure, while the measured strengths exhibited high molding pressure sensitivity. Interlaminar shear strength was considered to be the dominate factor in damage determination during tensile testing, while interlaminar tensile strength played the main role in compression fracture. Increase in the tape length led to a slight increase in the strength magnitude, but also a significant increase in the standard deviation of strength due to the decrease in structural regularity.