Comparison of creep behavior of UD and woven CFRP in bending

Abstract

Experimental results for creep bending tests of tape and twill woven carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates are presented and discussed. The aim of the research program was to characterize and compare the long-term behavior of both laminates. These materials will be included as structural elements in the construction of supports for delicate and precise radiation detection elements, so they need to be highly stable under any environmental conditions. The time dependency of the fiber-dominated properties of the CFRP laminates is negligibly small. Therefore the initial, analysis pointed to better creep behavior of the twill-woven CFRP laminate and also predicted null creep strains. The experimental results show a different picture: the tape laminates performed better than the woven laminates, which exhibit larger creep strains than the initial guess.