MACROMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY AND POLYMERIC MATERIALS Carbon Fabric Reinforced Composites Based on Modified Epoxy Resins and Prediction of Their Strength Characteristics

The strength characteristics of composites based on four types of modified epoxy resins and re- inforced with carbon fabric were studied as influenced by the filler content. The experimental and theoretical strength parameters of the composites were compared. The correlation between the adhesion strength at the polymeric binder-filler boundary and the impact resilience of the composites was evaluated; a procedure was proposed for predicting the impact resilience of the reinforced composites. Composite materials based on polymeric binders and reinforced with carbon fibers and fabric have high strength properties and find many applications in aero- space industry and ship building (1, 2). The nature of polymeric binder and the adhesion properties at the in- terface between the polymeric matrix and the carbon fabric strongly affect the properties of the reinforced composites, especially in the case of various epoxy binders (1, 3). The electrical conductivity and strength properties of a series of composites based on modified epoxy resins filled with carbon black and graphite were studied in (3); the possibility of predicting the strength properties of fiber glass fabric reinforced composites with similar binders was analyzed in (4). The aim of this work was to study the strength prop- erties of carbon fabric reinforced composites based on modified epoxy resins and to develop a procedure for calculating their strength properties, taking into account the adhesion characteristics at the interface between the polymeric binder and the carbon fabric boundary.