Overall temperature-dependent elastic properties of carbon fiber polymer matrix composites at high temperatures

In this paper we discuss the effect of volumetric ablation on the overall elastic properties of the carbon fiber reinforced polymer matrix composite. An Arrhenius type equation describing polymer decomposition was used to determine volume fractions of evolving polymer matrix phases (i.e. polymer, growing pores filled with pyrolysis gases, and char). The effect of the pressure exerted by pyrolysis gases trapped inside the pores was analyzed. Microstructures consisting of carbon fibers (circular inclusions) in the matrix and pores (elliptic inclusions) in the polymer were generated. Temperature dependency was addressed by generating microstructures with different volume fraction of pores, which were calculated from the mass loss model. Two-step numerical homogenization of representative volume elements (RVEs) was performed using finite element analysis (FEA). The developed procedures were applied to calculate temperature dependent (up to 700 K) effective elastic properties of the AS4/3501-6 composite. The results are compared to the existing experimental data and show good agreement.