Manufacturing Method of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic with Artificial Damages for Evaluating Electrical Behaviors

This paper demonstrates a method to manufacture carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite with artificial damages for evaluating electrical behaviors. The damages include micro-damages, i.e., fiber breaks and delaminations. The composite contained four layers of twill woven carbon fiber and epoxy resin. Vacuum bag method was implemented to create the composite. Fiber breaks were created by cutting fibers prior to being immersed by resin. Furthermore, plastic plates were tucked in the composite layer interface to create artificial delamination. After the vacuum bag process, the composite was cut to be several specimens. The fiber waiving and the distance among composite layers were then investigated. In addition, electrode plates were pasted on the composite surfaces. These electrode plates were used for injecting electric current to obtain the composite resistance indicating the appearance of artificial damages in the composite. The proposed manufacturing process of composite with artificial damages shows good results in which the damages can be fully controlled in terms of geometry and size.