Impact performance on industrial scalable graphene reinforcement composites

Carbon fiber reinforced epoxy laminates are widely used in the design and manufacturing of aeronautical structures. Among different manufacturing procedures, resin transfer moulding (RTM) has emerged as a cost-effective alternative to prepregs manufactured in an autoclave. However, the laminate obtained by RTM exhibits approximately 20% lower mechanical properties. To address this limitation, the addition of nanoparticles has been suggested as a solution. In this study, graphene particles were obtained by in-situ mechanical exfoliation in the resin and directly injected into the mould. The major achievement of this study is that the entire manufacturing process was performed at an industrial scale using the same tooling used to produce aircraft structures. Laminates with varying concentrations and dispersion times were manufactured using RTM and subjected to compression after impact tests, resulting in a 7.6% improvement. Furthermore, analysis through SEM techniques revealed the role of graphene in the bear capacity of the laminates. Finally, to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed methodology in an industrial environment, a real aircraft structure was manufactured with graphene, without any modifications to the actual industrial process. & COPY; 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons .org /licenses /by /4 .0/).

Automated summary

Carbon fiber reinforced epoxy laminates are widely used in aeronautical structures. This study investigates the addition of graphene particles to improve the mechanical properties of laminates manufactured using resin transfer moulding. The research demonstrates a 7.6% improvement in compression after impact tests and reveals the influence of graphene on the load-bearing capacity of the laminates through SEM analysis. Additionally, the feasibility of using graphene in an industrial environment is demonstrated by manufacturing an aircraft structure without modifying the existing industrial process.