Mechanical and Fracture Mechanical Properties of Matrix-Reinforced Carbon Fiber Composites with Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon fiber reinforced Plastics are materials with high strength and stiffness at low weight compared to metals. These properties make the materials ideal candidate for structures in aerospace applications, where they are often used under bending conditions. Due to the strongly anisotropic composition the CFRP typically fail in compression by fiber buckling. In order to improve this weakness, nanotube and nanofiber reinforced matrix was used to build CFRP. Four-point bending tests showed that stiffness and strength could be improved by the fillers, whereas negative influence was found on fracture energy.