Correlation between post fire behavior and microstructure degradation of aeronautical polymer composites

The influence of fire conditions on the thermo-physical properties of carbon fibers woven-ply PPS and epoxy has been investigated. More specifically, this work was aimed at comparing the changes on laminates meso-and microstructure due to increasing heat fluxes, and depending on matrix nature. The residual tensile mechanical properties were compared considering the specific thermal decomposition of thermosetting-and thermoplastic-based composites, with a particular attention paid to the char formation along with the mass loss. For the range of heat fluxes studied (up to 50 kW/m(2)), the post-fire tensile mechanical properties of PPS-based laminates are significantly higher than those of C/Epoxy laminates (about twice higher at 50 kW/m(2)), not due to the char yield which is similar in the studied materials (about 80%), but rather to a better residual cohesion of the fibrous reinforcement at both microscale (within fiber bundles) and mesoscale (intra and inter-ply). (c) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.