Accelerated hygrothermal cyclical tests for carbon/epoxy laminates

Jihed Jedidi (1) , Frédéric Jacquemin (2) , Alain Vautrin (1)

1 ENSM ST-ETIENNE - Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de St Etienne
2 GeM - Institut de Recherche en Génie Civil et Mécanique

The paper is related to a supersonic transportation application where polymer matrix composites utilized in primary structures are subjected to particular hygrothermal flight-cycles. In fact, the particular point in this study is the drying effect of supersonic flight at high temperature, around 130°C, on the durability of the material. This phenomenon constitutes an entirely new situation for these materials in contrast with a classical subsonic flight at low temperature. The supersonic aircraft is supposed to be subjected to a succession of supersonic flight-cycles followed by a periodic maintenance operation. The objective of the study is first to characterize the in-service material state during the supersonic flight cycles and after the maintenance operations. Then, the challenge is to define the material geometry and environmental conditions to meet the in-service material state in short time. Thus, different accelerated cycles adapted to the new situation of supersonic flights, i.e. focusing on the cyclical drying of the material, are proposed.

Mots clés: Internal stresses; Accelerated cycles; Moisture concentration

Domaines: Mécanique [physics.med-ph]; Matériaux

Jihed Jedidi, Frédéric Jacquemin, Alain Vautrin. Accelerated hygrothermal cyclical tests for carbon/epoxy laminates. Euromech 453 Conference: Internal Stresses in Polymer Composite Processing and Service Life, 2003, Saint-Étienne, France. ⟨10.1016/j.compositesa.2005.05.007⟩. ⟨hal-01007828⟩