Experimental study on the mechanical properties of laminates made of thin carbon fiber plies

Abstract Thin carbon-fiber prepregs can improve the designability of the number and the angle of layup at a constant laminate thickness, and meet the requirements of the load bearing capacity of the thin-walled structure. In this work, experiments based on the MIL17 method were performed to investigate the performance of carbon-fiber laminates manufactured from thin prepregs, and compare to those of conventional prepregs. Besides the performance advantages of thin prepregs and conventional prepregs hybrid laminates were explored. It is shown that longitudinal compression properties, tensile properties and mechanical joint properties of the thin unidirectional plates have been improved to some extent. The initial damage strength of the longitudinal tensile of thin laminates is increased by 30%, which indicates that the thin prepregs can delay the generation of initial damage in laminates. It is worth noting that the basic mechanical properties of the hybrid laminates are obviously improved and the longitudinal tensile/compressive strength is approximately increased 50%. In addition, these performance improvements are accompanied by changes in failure modes. The failure modes of thin specimens, especially hybrid specimens, tend to be brittle failure. The results of present study have certain guiding significance for the engineering application of thin prepregs in thin-walled structures.