Effect of Accelerated Aging Temperature under Artificial Seawater on the Properties of Carbon Fiber/Epoxy Composites and the Erosion Mechanism

In order to explore the effect of artificial accelerated aging temperature on the performance of carbon fiber/epoxy resin composites, we used artificial seawater as the aging medium, designed the aging environment of seawater at different temperatures under normal pressure, and studied the aging behavior of carbon fiber/epoxy composites. The infrared spectroscopy results show that, with the increase of aging temperature, the degree of hydrolysis of the composite is greater. At the same time, after 250 days of aging of artificial seawater at regular temperature, 40 and 60 °C, the moisture absorption rates of composite materials were 0.45%, 0.63%, and 1.05%, and the retention rates of interlaminar shear strength were 91%, 78%, and 62%, respectively. It is shown that the temperature of the aging environment has a significant impact on the hygroscopic behavior and mechanical properties of the composite, that is, the higher the temperature, the faster the moisture absorption of the composite, and the faster the decay of the mechanical properties of the composite.