The effect of simultaneous heat/fire and impact on carbon fibril and particle release from carbon fibre-reinforced composites

A novel laboratory scale testing equipment has been designed and developed, which combines impact and heat/fire conditions to enable the testing of composite laminates, including the ability to capture debris/particles released during the test. This incorporates a pendulum impactor to create impact whilst the sample is exposed to a cone heater at a particular heat flux for a specified period of time. A protocol for testing samples under different conditions and capturing particles released, both from the front and back faces, along with effluents has been provided. A carbon fibre-reinforced epoxy composite was impacted whilst being exposed to different heat fluxes for a range of time periods. A loss of stiffness related to the heating exposure time was found to affect the damage type. At lower heat fluxes, the captured particles included broken carbon fibres, decomposed resinous particles and resin coated fibres. Quantitative and morphological analyses of captured particles demonstrated that the sizes of decomposed resin particles and fibres reduced with longer exposure time or increased heat flux. This information could be useful to provide insight into potential health hazards of components of the composites