Direct observation of micro delamination in graphene oxide incorporated carbon fiber/epoxy composite via in-situ tensile test

The microdelamination analysis is a critical issue in current failure analysis of delamination phenomenon in carbon fiber (CF) reinforced epoxy composites. Both, the improvement of delamination resistance of the CF/epoxy composites using filler materials and the microdelamination studies of these hybrid composites through nondestructive technique are great concern to the material researchers. Herein, 0.2 wt% graphene oxide (GO) nanofiller was incorporated in CF/epoxy composite to resist the micro crack formation during delamination and in-situ tensile test was conducted to investigate the microdelamination behavior of the hybrid composite using a microtester in the specimen chamber of a field emission scanning electron microscope. It was observed that the GO modified epoxy matrix showed better matrix cracking resistance than the pure epoxy resin. The improvement in matrix cracking resistance of the GO (0.2 wt%)/CF/epoxy composite is due to the good adhesion between GO modified matrix and CF. Besides the experimental study, Finite Element Analysis of the hybrid composite was performed to predict the generated stress in each ply as it is not possible through experimental study. Tsai-Wu failure criteria was also applied to analyze the damage in each ply of the composite laminate.