Characterization and rapid prediction of the effect of hygrothermal ageing on the interlaminar shear strength of CFRP at a high temperature

In this paper, the effects of different hygrothermal ageing conditions on the interlaminar shear mechanical properties of carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) at room temperature and at a high temperature were studied. The changes in interface properties were characterized by macroscopic section analysis and scanning electron microscopy. The results demonstrated that the interlaminar failure strength of CFRP decreases nonlinearly with increasing ageing time, with an approximately exponential relationship. Under the same ageing conditions, the residual strength of high-temperature interlaminar shear is significantly lower than that at room temperature. By quantitatively studying the relationship between the failure strength of CFRP interlaminar shear and the absorbance intensities of functional groups, a failure strength prediction method was proposed. The verification results showed that the correlation accuracy can meet the requirements of engineering applications.