A Novel Methodology for the Enhancement of Peel Properties of Aerospace Composite Laminates by Nanofibers Interleaving

In aerospace industries, interleaved composite laminates are gaining popularity due to improved fracture toughness and resistance, impact damage resistance, and delayed fatigue onset damage. The peel resistance of composite laminates has to be maximum in order to minimize the interlaminar delamination. In this research a novel method such as polymer nanofiber interleaving is adopted to enhance the peel resistance of composite laminates. This paper focuses on the peel properties of base and nanofibers interleaved AS4/3501-6 composite laminate. Two types of polymer nanofibers (Nylon 6,6 and PPSU) were interleaved with AS4/3501-6 composite laminate using compression molding. Peel and solubility tests were conducted in order to assess the effect of nanofibers interleaving in composite laminate. The peel test results clearly demonstrated that Nylon 6,6 interleaved AS4/3501-6 samples has about 32% higher peak peel force than that of baseline samples whereas polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) nanofibers interleaved sample showed a marginal increase of peak peel force of about ~ 9%. Solubility tests showed that PPSU nanofibers completely dissolves in 3501-6 epoxy resin whereas the Nylon 6,6 fibers are not soluble in 3501-6 epoxy.