Composites: Part A 87 (2016) 271–281

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Composites: Part A
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesa

Tensile and compressive properties of chopped carbon fiber tapes

reinforced thermoplastics with different fiber lengths and molding
pressures
Yi Wan ⇑, Jun Takahashi
Department of Systems Innovation, The University of Tokyo, Room 414, Eng. Bldg. 3, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Tensile and compressive behaviors of chopped carbon fiber tapes reinforced thermoplastics have been
Received 11 January 2016 investigated by varying compression molding conditions (to study the effect of the molding pressure)
Received in revised form 17 April 2016 and the tape length (to analyze the fiber length effect on the mechanical properties of produced compos-
Accepted 3 May 2016
ites). Fractographic analysis of prepared specimens conducted after the experiments indicated that the
Available online 4 May 2016
obtained modulus values were almost independent of both the tape length and molding pressure, while
the measured strengths exhibited high molding pressure sensitivity. Interlaminar shear strength was
Keywords:
considered to be the dominate factor in damage determination during tensile testing, while interlaminar
A. Discontinuous reinforcement
A. Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs)
tensile strength played the main role in compression fracture. Increase in the tape length led to a slight
B. Mechanical properties increase in the strength magnitude, but also a significant increase in the standard deviation of strength
E. Compression molding due to the decrease in structural regularity.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Various researches of the compression molding process and its

Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) have been widely used
in the engineering field where lightweight materials with good
mechanical properties are required. Thermoplastics have attracted
researchers’ and engineers’ attention as matrix materials due to
the absence of the curing stage, less hazardous chemical composi-
tions, and better recyclability as compared to conventional
thermosetting resins [1]. In addition, randomly oriented discontin-
uous fiber systems have been widely utilized for CFRP compression
molding. In contrast to continuous fiber systems, short-fiber sys-
tems show the superiority in complex shape design and flowabil-
ity. The application of randomly oriented carbon fiber reinforced
thermoplastics (RCFRTP) in the automotive industry can possibly
reduce fossil fuel consumption and mitigate environmental
impacts. However, using RCFRTP in motor vehicles requires basic
knowledge of the utilized materials and manufacturing processes.
A variety of RCFRTP, chopped carbon fiber tape-reinforced thermo-
plastics (CTT), have been previously developed in our research
group [2] and can be potentially used as materials for manufactur-
ing critical components of automotive parts.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: wan-yi@cfrtp.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp (Y. Wan).
influence on the material structure and mechanical properties have
been extensively conducted in the past decades. Kim and co-
workers investigated compressibility during molding and decon-
solidation behavior of mat-reinforced RCFRTP [3]. A proposed
analytical model and experimental studies of the impregnation
during compression molding of woven CFRTP were reported by
Phillips et al. [4], while the effects of the stamping conditions on
the mechanical properties of the woven CFRTP have been exam-
ined by Vieille et al. [5], and the related optimal molding parame-
ters were determined for CFRTP laminates using a Taguchi method
[6]. The effects of the compression molding conditions on the
RCFRTP shear properties were studied by Li and co-workers [7],
while the void [8] and defect [9] generation processes in RCFRTP
during compression molding and their influence on the material
mechanical performance were investigated by professor Pascal
from McGill University and his research group.
Tensile and compressive properties are the most basic mechan-
ical parameters of materials utilized in automotive structural com-
ponents (the related studies have been extensively conducted
during the past few decades [10–23]). Fu et al. calculated the ten-
sile modulus and strength of RCFRTP using the modified rule of
mixtures that took into account fiber length and orientation distri-
butions [10–12]; they also utilized a laminate analogy approach to
evaluate the tensile modulus of RCFRTP [13]. Hashimoto et al.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2016.05.005
1359-835X/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
272 Y. Wan, J. Takahashi / Composites: Part A 87 (2016) 271–281
predicted the tensile strength parameters more accurately by using
a multi-scale finite element method [14], while Argon et al.
reported that the initial fiber misalignment along the compressive
loading direction would lead to the decrease in compressive
strength, which depended on the fiber yield stress [15]. The previ-
ously reported studies on the CFRP compressive properties were
mainly focused on the kinking phenomenon, while the CFPR lami-
nates are still considered the most examined and well-prepared
materials [16,17]. Budiansky and Fleck investigated the shear
deformation caused by local fiber buckling (corresponding to the
general plastic behavior) when kink bands are generated during
compressive fracture; they significantly contributed to the
strength theory describing the behavior of CFRP subjected to com-
pressive kinking and established versatile constitutive equations
that could be used for quantitative analysis [18–21]. The orienta-
tion dependences of the tensile and compressive properties of
short glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene were investigated by
Hartl et al. [23]. However, still only a few research studies focused
on both the tensile and compressive behaviors of RSFRTP. Also the
RCFRTP impregnation qualities generally considered as a key factor
in the compression molding processes. Nevertheless, the relation-
ship between the impregnation quality of RSFRTP and its tensile/
compressive properties still need further investigations.
The objective of this work was to study tensile and compressive
properties of CTT composites manufactured from ultra-thin semi-
prepreg tapes. Material molding conditions were changed by vary-
ing the compression pressure, while fiber lengths were modified by
using the ultrathin semi-prepreg tapes with different lengths, and
the effects of these parameters on the tensile and compressive
properties of the obtained composites were examined. In addition,
the effects of the molding conditions on the polymer structural
properties were investigated through the microstructure observa-
tion and the material fracture analysis.
2. Materials and methods
Ultra-thin chopped carbon fiber tape reinforced thermoplastics
(UT-CTT), which contained in-plane randomly oriented ultra-thin
unidirectional semi-prepreg tapes manufactured from carbon fiber
tow (TR 50S, Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd.) and Polyamid-6 film (PA6,
DIAMIRONTM C, Mitsubishi Plastics, Inc.), were utilized in this study.
The average tape thickness (between 40 lm and 50 lm) was much
smaller than that of a conventional tape (approximately 150 lm);
therefore, it was referred to as a ‘‘UT (ultra-thin) tape” (Fig. 1). UT
tape-containing unnotched specimens exhibited superior fracture
resistance under static, fatigue, and impact loading (as compared
to that for the conventional materials) [24]. In addition, the UT
tapes were characterized by better structural integrity after com-
pression molding due to the more uniform molding pressure distri-
bution [25–27] (in this work, unidirectional semi-prepreg UT tapes
were provided by the Industrial Technology Center of the Fukui
Prefecture). In order to study the effect of the fiber length, the
semi-prepreg UT tapes were cut into pieces with different lengths
(6 mm, 12 mm, 18 mm, and 24 mm).
Fig. 1. Cross-sections of the UT (a) and conventional (b) tapes. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of
this article.)
UT-CTT sheets with random orientations were prepared by
using a wet-type paper manufacturing process described in
Fig. 2. First, the obtained discontinuous tapes were collected and
placed inside a water-filled container with a filter and an aperture
on the bottom side. After the tapes were randomly dispersed, the
aperture was opened to remove the water from the container.
Then, the UT-CTT sheets were temporarily fixed by heating and
cooling hand presses under two procedures: firstly, under 90 °C
and 0.1 MPa pressure for 1 min to remove the water; secondly,
under 230 °C and 0.5 MPa pressure for 1 min to temporarily fix
the sheet. Because of the high water absorption of PA6, the
UT-CTT sheets were put into a vacuum dryer before molding. The
temperature of the dryer was set to 90 °C and the sheets were
vacuuming for 12 h before the sheets were stacked and molded.
Finally, heat-and-cool compression molding was applied to mold
UT-CTT specimens from the stacked UT-CTT sheets.
Because impregnation qualities significantly affect material
mechanical properties, while impregnating thermoplastics is more
difficult than impregnating thermosetting polymers due to their
high viscosity after melting, two different molding processes were
utilized for UT-CTT manufacturing: high-pressure molding (M h )
and low-pressure molding (M l ). The detailed molding conditions
are described in Fig. 3; as a result, four UT-CTT composites with
different tape lengths were molded at both the M h and M l condi-
tions. The molded plates were in 3 mm thickness, and the plate size
was 250 mm in length and 125 mm in width. Before the specimens
were cutout, the molding edge effects were eliminated by cutting
off 10 mm from each edge.
Tensile and compressive tests were conducted by using a uni-
versal testing machine (AUTOGRAPH AG-X plus, Shimadzu Co.,
Ltd.). To prevent early-stage damage at the end portions of tested
specimens, a compression jig described in Fig. 4 was utilized. Five
specimens were prepared for each UT-CTT type using different tape
lengths and molding conditions. The tensile specimens were cut to
35 mm ⁄ 150 mm size while the compressive specimens were cut
to 16 mm ⁄ 70 mm due to the limitation of the compressive jig.
Tensile and compressive modulus values were measured by exten-
someter and strain gauges, respectively. The experiment condi-
tions were partially follow the JIS K 7073 (1.0 mm/min tensile
test speed) and JIS K 7076 (0.5 mm/min compressive test speed).
The 50 mm extensometer was utilized for tensile specimens and
both sides of the compressive specimen surfaces were installed
with 5 mm strain gauge to measure the average strain value. After
the specimens were broken, the fractographic analysis was con-
ducted using a microscope (VHX-1000, Keyence Co., Ltd.), a 3D
X-ray scanner (TDM1000-II, Yamato Scientific Co., Ltd.), and an
image processing software (TRI/3D-BON, RATOC System Engineer-
ing Co., Ltd.).
Fiber volume fractions (V f ) and Void volume fractions (V v ) of
the UT-CTT with different tape lengths manufactured under differ-
ent molding conditions were evaluated through ash testing, during
which the sample volume V and sample weight M was measured
by a densitometer, while the CF weight, MCF , was determined by
burning off the polymer resin under 500 °C for three hours in a
 Y. Wan, J. Takahashi / Composites: Part A 87 (2016) 271–281 273

Fig. 2. Manufacturing of the UT-CTT composites by the wet-type paper making method. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is
referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 3. Parameters of the M h (orange) and Ml (blue) molding conditions. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)

crucible furnace. V f and V v values were calculated by using the
equation V f ¼ ðM CF =qCF Þ=V; V v ¼ ðqCF  V f þ qM ð1  V f Þ  M=VÞ=
qM , where qCF was the density of the CF material and qM was the
density of the matrix material (provided by the corresponding
manufacturers in this study).
3. Results
3.1. Compression molding
Fig. 5 shows the images of the UT-CTT composites with different
tape lengths. The molding pressure difference between the Mh and
Ml molding conditions resulted in a difference in the UT-CTT
impregnation qualities. After M h molding, the CF impregnation
quality was very good since the CF tape surface was entirely cov-
ered by the polymer matrix. In contrast, the impregnation quality
of the material surface obtained by the M l molding was not as good
since some tape parts were not fully covered with the polymer spe-
cies, making the CF surface partially exposed (Fig. 6). Also the X-ray
CT images have analogy results that void and un-impregnated area
were only observed in M l specimens (Fig. 7).
The V f and V v values measured separately for each prepared
UT-CTT composite type (Table 1) indicate that the impregnation
characteristics of the high-pressure molding process are superior.
Because the intermediate substrates before molding were identi-
cal, higher values of the fiber volume fraction corresponded to
lower void volume fractions or higher amounts of the resin
squeezed out of the mold.
274 Y. Wan, J. Takahashi / Composites: Part A 87 (2016) 271–281
Fig. 4. A jig for the UT-CTT compressive testing. (For interpretation of the
references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version
of this article.)
The V f values for the produced UT-CTT show differences for dif-
ferent tape length and molding conditions. In order to perform a
quantitative analysis and evaluation of the mechanical properties,
their related parameters were estimated from the real V f values for
each specimen by applying the general rule of mixtures [10] (with
the reference V f value set to 50%).
3.2. Mechanical property testing and fractography analysis
After analyzing the obtained tensile and compressive test
results, the equivalent mechanical properties were evaluated for
Fig. 5. Images of the UT-CTT composites with different tape lengths. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)
all tested specimens (Fig. 8). The scatters of the values were the
corresponding standard deviations. The resulting values of the
equivalent tensile modulus Et and equivalent compressive modu-
lus Ec were found to be independent of the tape length and mold-
ing conditions. In contrast, the equivalent strengths showed tape
length and molding conditions dependency. Moreover, the equiva-
lent compressive strength rc parameter was more sensitive to the
molding conditions than the equivalent tensile strength rt because
the average value of rc was lower for the M l specimens than for the
M h specimens regardless of the tape length (in contrast to the rt
results). In addition, the standard deviation of the strength magni-
tudes for each specimen increased with an increase in the tape
length at both molding conditions. The rt and rc values obtained
for the M l specimens also exhibited different tendencies with an
increase in the tape length: rt was found to be independent of it,
while rc decreased with increasing tape length.
The fracture mechanisms were also different for the tensile and
compressive specimens. During tensile testing, three basic failure
models were observed: fiber breakage, tape tearing (interphase
debonding), and tape debonding (interface debonding) (Fig. 9).
These tensile failure models usually occur simultaneously in UT-
CTT composites; however, their occurrence frequencies depended
on the specimen molding conditions and tape length (Fig. 10).
For the M h molding, the fiber breakage was the dominant fracture
model, the tape tearing could be observed in some parts, while the
tape debonding was hardly detected in the specimens. However,
although the fiber breakage could be observed in the M l specimens,
the interphase and interface debonding failures also played very
important roles. Moreover, for some M l specimens characterized
by poor mechanical performance, the interphase and interface
debonding processes were considered to be the dominant failure
models. In addition, the fiber breakage was more likely to occur
in the specimens with high lengths of CF tapes.
According to the compression test results, the obtained failure
models can be divided in two groups: buckling and cracking. The
failure models appears to correlate with the molding conditions:
both the buckling and cracking failures were observed in the M h
specimens, while only the buckling failures occurred in the M l
specimens. In addition, buckling generally produces more severe
damage in M h specimens than in M l specimens. Furthermore,
slight buckling that occurred in some M l specimens with poor
 Y. Wan, J. Takahashi / Composites: Part A 87 (2016) 271–281 275

Fig. 6. Micrographs of the UT-CTT composites fabricated at the M h (a) and Ml (b) molding conditions. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the
reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 7. X-ray lCT images of the poor impregnation of M l specimen (a) and the general Mh specimen (b).

Table 1 the tensile M l specimens, while the compressive failure in the M l

V f (fiber volume fractions) and V v (void volume fractions) of UT-CTT composites with specimens could be described by two different models. In addition,
the initial buckling significantly affected the average rc values for
various tape lengths fabricated at different molding conditions.

Tape length 6 mm 12 mm 18 mm 24 mm the M l specimens, which, therefore, could be separated into two
Vf of Mh (%) 54.4 56.1 55.2 56.7 different groups corresponding to the buckling and initial buckling
Vv of M h (%) 1.20 1.06 0.78 1.01 failure models. The rc values obtained at different CF tape lengths
Vf of Ml (%) 50.1 50.0 49.2 51.6 are plotted in Fig. 12, because only one or two M l specimens failed
Vv of M l (%) 3.21 3.12 3.80 3.35 with buckling in each tape length, so the corresponding rc results
were plotted without standard deviations. The general buckling M l
specimens exhibited rc values similar to those for the M h speci-
mechanical properties at a very early stage was defined as initial mens. In contrast, the initial buckling Ml specimens produced
buckling (Fig. 11). apparently abnormal results corresponding to a decrease in the
average rc (accompanied by a scattering increase) with an increase
4. Discussion in the tape length. In addition, the average rc values for the initial
buckling Ml specimens were much lower than those for the general
Both the tensile and compressive strength values were lower for buckling M l and M h specimens indicating that the initial buckling
the M l specimens than for the M h ones; however, the obtained failure was the dominant reason for the decrease in rc of the M l
trends for the rc parameter revealed a distinct relationship specimens. Therefore, if the rc values for the initial buckling spec-
between the molding conditions and the mechanical performance imens are plotted separately, their dependence on the CF fiber
of the UT-CTT composites. Similar failure models were observed for length rc will be characterized by the graph depicted in Fig. 13.
276 Y. Wan, J. Takahashi / Composites: Part A 87 (2016) 271–281

Fig. 8. Equivalent mechanical properties of the UT-CTT composites: tensile modulus (a1), tensile strength (a2), compressive modulus (b1), and compressive strength (b2).
(For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 9. Fiber breakage (a), tape tearing (interphase debonding) (b), and tape debonding (interface debonding) (c) [30] in the tensile specimen (d). (For interpretation of the
references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

In contrast, no clear differences were observed between the failure
models for the tensile M l specimens; however, as was previously
stated, the M l specimens with low rt produced more tape debond-
ing failure models than the other specimens.
To further investigate the mechanical performance and fracture
progress in the M l specimens, typical force–stroke (F–S) and
stress–strain (S–S) curves were plotted for the specimens with
average and low rt as well as for those characterized by the gen-
eral buckling and initial buckling failure models (see Fig. 14).
According to the presented data, the curves obtained for the
low-rt tensile specimens merely follow the trend previously
observed for the high-rt specimens, while all the tensile specimens
are characterized by brittle fractures. Conversely, different curves
were obtained for the general buckling (high-rc ) and initial
 Y. Wan, J. Takahashi / Composites: Part A 87 (2016) 271–281 277

Fig. 10. Fracture sections of the high-strength tensile specimen with 30 mm tape length (a), the low-strength tensile specimen with 30 mm tape length (b), the high-strength
tensile specimen with 12 mm tape length (c) and the low-strength tensile specimen with 12 mm tape length (d). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure
legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 11. Lateral views of M h cracking (a), M h buckling (b), M l buckling (c), and M l initial buckling (d) in the compressive fracture specimens. (For interpretation of the
references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

buckling (low-rc ) fracture compressive M l specimens. The F–S and trast, the curves obtained for the initial buckling specimens repre-
S–S dependences plotted for the general buckling specimens corre- sent ductile fractures: they show a linear increase first and then
spond to brittle fractures: they first increase linearly followed by a drop at relatively low loading when the initial buckling occurs.
sudden drop, indicating the ultimate failure of a specimen. In con- After the initial fracture, the F–S curve stretches further with a
278 Y. Wan, J. Takahashi / Composites: Part A 87 (2016) 271–281

Fig. 12. rc values for the Ml specimens with general buckling (a) and initial buckling (b) fractures.

the fracture are almost identical (regardless of the failure model),

Fig. 13. Modified equivalent compressive strengths for the composite specimens
with different lengths of the reinforcement tape. (For interpretation of the
references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version
of this article.)
slight decrease, while the S–S curve regresses along its original
shape until the ultimate failure. In addition, the curve slopes (i.e.,
the stiffnesses) for the compressive M l specimens before and after
while the stiffnesses obtained for the high-rt specimens are
slightly higher than those for the low-rt ones.
The obtained results reveal that the poor impregnation quality
lead to a low strength response during both tensile and compres-
sive testing. The fracture mechanism and rc values significantly
depend on the impregnation quality; thus, the poor impregnation
produces ductile fractures and a significant decrease in rc . In addi-
tion, the increase in the length for the UT tape leads to an increase
in scattering for both the tensile and compressive strengths.
The dependence between the impregnation quality, UT tape
length and the failure models was exhibited by the tensile speci-
mens. When the tape length is long or the impregnation quality
is good, the corresponding failure model often follows the fiber
brakeage, while at short tape length or poor impregnation quality,
the failure is more likely to occur according to the interphase or
interface debonding. The changes in impregnation quality produce
changes in interphase and interface strengths and stress transfer
limitations. After taking into account the stress conditions of the
specimens during interphase and interface debonding (Fig. 10 indi-
cated that the tape debonded with interfacial shear failure), it can

Fig. 14. Force–stroke (F–S) (a1) and stress–strain (S–S) (a2) curves for the Ml tensile specimens, and F–S (b1) and S–S (b2) curves for the M l compressive specimens. (For
interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
 Y. Wan, J. Takahashi / Composites: Part A 87 (2016) 271–281 279

Fig. 15. 3D X-ray models of M h cracking (a), Mh buckling (b), M l buckling (c), and M l initial buckling (d) in the compressive fracture specimens.

Fig. 16. Schematics of the UT-CTT composites with 6-mm (a), 24-mm (b), and imaginary 120-mm (c) tapes.

Fig. 17. Micro X-ray images of the general UT-CTT composite (a), poor impregnation area (b), and split tape area (c).

be assumed that the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) is the dom-
inant factor in the tensile damage determination. In addition, the
linear elongations of the F–S and S–S curves recorded for the ten-
sile specimens during the fracture process suggest that the average
tensile strength of UT-CTT can be predicted by simple micro-
mechanical models due to the linear mechanical response, as has
been demonstrated previously [28,29].
Despite the differences in fracture progresses under different
molding conditions, the observed mechanisms for the compressive
failures were similar. Fig. 15 displays the 3D models of the com-
pressive specimens with various failure models obtained under dif-
ferent molding conditions, which show that the local structural
damages observed for all failure models mainly correspond to
delamination towards out-of-plane direction (denoted by the cir-
cles in Fig. 15). Combining the corresponding stress conditions
with the failure analysis results reveals that the interlaminar ten-
sile strength (ILTS) plays the main role in the compressive failure.
In contrast to the tensile test results, the observed sudden changes
280 Y. Wan, J. Takahashi / Composites: Part A 87 (2016) 271–281
in the failure model and related strength values (Figs. 11 and 12)
suggest the existence of an ILTS threshold, which preserves the
structural integrity and stress transfer properties of a material by
avoiding initial local delamination and damage at an early stage.
Because the impregnation qualities significantly affect the ILTS,
the decrease in molding pressure can lead to a significant decrease
in rc . However, when the ILTS exceeds its threshold, the material
fracture exhibits statistical conformity despite the differences in
the impregnation qualities (Fig. 13).
In addition, even when the tape length used in this study signif-
icantly exceeds the critical fiber length of similar composites [10],
the increases in rt and rc are still observed under good impregna-
tion qualities due to the structural integrality effect. As illustrated
in Fig. 16, when the tape length is short, the material structure is
close to that of a locally independent laminate with good regularity
indicating that the structural damage can be contained within a
relatively small range. However, when the tape length increases,
the corresponding structure more resembles that for a combina-
tion of carbon paper and locally independent laminate suggesting
that the roles of tape tangle and tape coupling effects become more
significant. The observed increases in rt and rc with tape lengths
can be attributed to these factors, leading to a slight increase of
structural integrality and resulting to enhancement of the compos-
ite mechanical properties. By contrast, longer tape lengths also
deteriorate the structural regularity of a material leading to a big-
ger standard deviation for both the rt and rc values. In addition,
the molding pressure also affect the standard deviation of the rt
and rc . For the M l specimens, the big standard deviation was
mainly led by the poor impregnation qualities, which led to low
ILSS and ILTS values and, therefore, deteriorated their mechanical
properties. Conversely, the M h specimens were produced at good
impregnation qualities, and their related stress transfer properties
and failure model were more stable. However, when the molding
pressure is too high, some tapes may splitted and produce regions
with high irregularity (Fig. 17). Such regions can serve as points of
stress concentration and initial failure under loading and thus lead
to individual differences in strength. In contrast to the V f parame-
ter, the Et and Ec values were found to be independent of the mold-
ing conditions and tape length indicating that the poor
impregnation qualities, fiber irregularity, and tape lengths utilized
in this study had virtually no effect on the initial stress transfer
properties of the composites.
5. Conclusions
In this work, tensile and compressive testing of the UT-CTT
composites with various reinforcement tape lengths prepared
under different molding pressures was performed. The obtained
results indicated that the material modulus values were almost
independent of the reinforcement tape lengths and impregnation
qualities. However, the measured tensile and compressive
strengths exhibited high sensitivity to the impregnation qualities.
The low molding pressure (representing poor impregnation quali-
ties) resulted in small values of both the tensile and compressive
strength. Under the observation of the experiment results, the ILSS
was determined as the dominant factor in the damage determina-
tion during tensile testing, while the ILTS was considered playing
the primary role in the compressive fracture process. The compres-
sive strength values abruptly changed at poor impregnation qual-
ities. The increase in the tape length led to a slight increase of
structural integrality of the composite resulting to enhancement
of the composite mechanical properties. Both the tape length and
molding pressure affected the standard deviation of the strength
of UT-CTT because of their effects on the internal geometry of
the material.
Acknowledgments
Part of this study was conducted as Japanese METI project ‘‘the
Future Pioneering Projects/Innovative Structural Materials Project”
since 2013fy. Authors would like to express sincerely appreciation
to the project members who have provided valuable information
and useful discussions.
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