Bending characterisation of a molten unidirectional carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastic composite using a Dynamic Mechanical Analysis system

Abstract The quality of forming simulations based on Finite Element methods is mainly determined by the accuracy of the material properties. Out-of-plane bending is one of the deformation mechanisms that govern the appearance of wrinkles while forming composite reinforcements. This paper proposes a new test method using a Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) system for the characterisation of longitudinal out-of-plane bending properties of molten unidirectional thermoplastics. Investigations are presented for a unidirectional carbon fibre reinforced polyamide 6 composite. Several standard bending test fixtures are assessed quasistatically at three temperatures and three test speeds with specimens of different geometries. Additional tests are conducted at forming temperature with the selected test arrangement. The evaluation of different approaches for the calculation of the bending modulus shows the interlaminar shear to be negligible. Results highlight an important material strain rate dependency. The evolution of the bending modulus satisfies a linear fitting within the range of data.