Effect of ⁶⁰ Co gamma radiation on the mechanical properties of epoxy blends and epoxy‐graphite fiber interface

Abstract The effect of ⁶⁰ Co gamma radiation of up to 100 Mrads on an IM6‐G graphite fiber‐epoxy interface was studied using the single‐fiber‐composite (SFC) technique. Flexible epoxy blends were formulated using diglycidylether of bisphenol‐A (DGEBA) based and polyglycol diepoxide epoxies which were cured with aliphatic and aromatic curing agents. Bulk epoxy specimens and graphite fibers were tension tested to obtain their tensile properties. The fragment length distribution from SFC tests, single fiber strength data, and a Monte Carlo simulation of Poisson/Weibull model for fiber strength and flaws were used to obtain the effective interfacial shear strength values. The results indicate that while graphite fiber strength is not affected by radiation, the tensile properties of the epoxies used are adversely affected by the radiation. The interfacial shear strength, however, increases significantly with the radiation dose. The study also supports the earlier results of many workers that the interfacial shear strength for flexible epoxies is much higher than the shear yield strength of the epoxies.