Compressive and flexural behavior of carbon fiber-reinforced PPS composites at elevated temperature

The effect of temperature on the mechanical behavior of carbon fiber reinforced polyphenylenesulfide (PPS) composites was investigated by compressive and flexural tests from ambient temperature up to 150 degrees C. The failure morphologies of the C/PPS composites were analyzed to identify the variation of failure modes. Related results showed that the mechanical behavior of C/PPS composites decreased severely with the increase of temperature due to the softening of matrix. The PPS resin film tensile test was carried out and the PPS matrix behavior was recognized as the main factor to dominate the mechanical behavior of composites under compressive/flexural loading at elevated temperatures. It can be found that there was an approximate linear relationship between the compression properties of C/PPS composites and the PPS matrix. The dependence of failure modes of composites on temperatures was closely related to the mechanical behavior of PPS matrix.