Materials Transactions, Vol. 44, No. 8 (2003) pp.

1613 to 1619
#2003 The Japan Institute of Metals

Fabrication of High Performance Magnesium/Carbon-Fiber/PEEK

Laminated Composites
M. C. Kuo1;2 , J. C. Huang1; * , M. Chen1 and M. H. Jen3
1
Institute of Materials Science and Engineering; Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, National Sun Yat-Sen University,
Kaohsiung, Taiwan 804, R. O. China
2
Department of Applied Fiber Style, Kun Shan University of Technology, Tainan, Taiwan 700, R. O. China
3
Department of Mechanical and Electro-Mechanical Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University,
Kaohsiung, Taiwan 804, R. O. China

Low density and high performance Mg-based laminated composites were fabricated by means of sandwiching the AZ31 Mg foils with the
carbon-fiber/polyether ether ketone (PEEK) prepreg through hot pressing. Proper surface treatments of AZ31 sheet using CrO3 base etchants are
necessary in order to achieve good interface bonding characteristics. The resulting Mg base laminated composite, with a low density of 1.7 Mg/
m3 , exhibits high modulus of 75 GPa and tensile strength of 932 MPa along the longitudinal direction. The experimentally measured tensile
modulus and strength data along both the longitudinal and transverse directions are within 90–100% of the theoretical predictions by rule of
mixtures, suggesting that the bonding between layers and the load transfer efficiency are satisfactory.

(Received January 23, 2003; Accepted June 2, 2003)

Keywords: magnesium alloy, fiber reinforced composite, polyether ether ketone polymer, hot pressing, tensile test

1. Introduction cated graphite magnesium composites. In addition, SiC

Magnesium alloys have attracted considerable attention
and interest worldwide during the past few years. Because of
its low density of 1.7–1.8 Mg/m3 (similar to or only slightly
higher than the densities of most polymers and polymer
composites), this metal provides the possibility of weight
saving in various metallic structures in aircraft, vehicles and
other transportation equipment.1–3) Moreover, magnesium
alloys have been, or have potential to be, applied in other
areas due to their characteristic natures of high specific
strength and stiffness, superior damping capacity, high
thermal conductivity, high dimensional stability, and good
machinability.4)
On the other hand, it is well known that the carbon fiber
(CF) reinforced polyether ether ketone (PEEK) polymer
composites (CF/PEEK) possess extraordinary specific
strength and stiffness along the longitudinal (or fiber)
direction, as compared with steel, Al or Ti alloys.5,6) The
CF/PEEK composite appears to be a shining star among all
PEEK composites, and is being considered as the candidates
to replace the conventional epoxy based composites for
aerospace applications.
Meanwhile, carbon fibers reinforced magnesium compo-
sites have been recognized as new promising structural
materials, due to their high specific strength and stiffness,
high electrical and thermal conductivities. The main problem
of fabricating these materials is that the molten magnesium
does not wet or bond to carbon fibers. As a result, it is difficult
to achieve efficient load transfer from the matrix to the fibers
in accordance with the rule of mixture (ROM). There have
been many developments proposed to solve this problem,
including coating of titanium-boron by chemical vapor
deposition (CVD) on carbon fibers7) or coating of silicon
dioxide on carbon fibers.8,9) Katzman9) successfully fabri-
*Corresponding author, E-mail: jacobc@mail.nsysu.edu.tw
coating on graphite fibers to improve the wetting behavior
between graphite fibers and molten magnesium has been
conducted.10)
So far, CF/Mg composites were mainly fabricated by
means of liquid metal infiltration, CVD, powder infiltration
and hot-forming, but none of the resulting composites could
fully utilize the fiber properties. It would be interesting to
explore the feasibility to laminate the Mg sheet directly with
the well established CF/PEEK prepreg, similar to the
previous cases developed for the Al base laminated compo-
sites.11–13)
It is well-known that fiber-reinforced aluminum laminates
(FRALL) have been successfully fabricated and commer-
cialized.11) The aramid fiber-reinforced aluminum laminates
(ARALL) were marketed by the Aluminum Company of
America for the applications such as aircraft lower wing skin,
fuselage and tail skins.12) Moreover, carbon fiber-reinforced
aluminum laminates (CARALL) show a superior crack
propagation resistance under tension-tension fatigue.13) All
the above developed FRALLs contain epoxy-resin polymer,
consisting of alternating layers of thin aluminum sheets
bonded by layers of high-strength fiber/epoxy prepreg. The
service temperature is not expected to exceed 373 K.
In this study, the laminated composites are developed for
the Mg base alloys, using the widely applied AZ31 sheets,
reinforced with the high strength unidirectional CF/PEEK
prepreg. The PEEK polymer can sustain its mechanical
properties up to 423 K or even 473 K,14,15) thus it is postulated
that the current Mg base Mg/CF/PEEK laminated compo-
sites might be utilized at higher temperatures. Commercial
Mg materials usually exhibit tensile strength around 200–
300 MPa at room temperature. It is aimed also to further
strengthen the Mg alloys. Since the Mg volume fraction for
the current developed composites is always above 60%, the
composite is regarded as an Mg base laminated composite.
1614 M. C. Kuo, J. C. Huang, M. Chen and M. H. Jen
2. Experimental
The AZ31 (Mg–3 mass%Al–1 mass%Zn–0.2 mass%Mn)
Mg ingot was supplied by CDN Genova Ventures LTD.,
Canada. The alloy was hot rolled into thin sheet measuring
2 mm in thickness, with an average grain size of 34 mm and a
density of 1.77 Mg/m3 . Then the 2 mm AZ31 Mg sheets were
further warm rolled at 573 K to a final thickness of 0.5–
0.6 mm. The grain size became around 10 mm.
The polymer material used is the AS-4 continuous carbon
fiber reinforced PEEK prepreg, designated as APC-2 and
fabricated by the ICI/Fiberite Company, USA. The matrix of
APC-2 is a tough, ductile, and semicrystalline thermoplastic
PEEK polymer with a glass transition temperature Tg of
416 K and melting temperature Tm of 616 K. The density of
the PEEK polymer is
1:3 Mg/m3 . The APC-2 prepreg
contains
61 vol% or
68 mass% continuous AS-4 carbon
fiber (with a diameter of
7 mm and density of
1:77 Mg/
m3 ) in the PEEK polymer matrix. The resulting density and
the thickness of one single prepreg layer are about 1.6 Mg/m3
and 120–150 mm, respectively.
Prior to lamination with the APC-2 prepreg, the slimmed
AZ31 sheets were subjected to pretreatment by special
chemicals in order to create the rough surfaces for better
bonding with the APC-2 prepreg. The first try was to
mechanically polish the sheet surface using #100 SiC
abrasive papers without chemical etching. The following
groups were etched by various chemical combinations
including HCl, HNO3 , H2 SO4 , (NO2 )3 C6 H2 OH, and CrO3 -
base etchants, etc.
Various layers of the APC-2 prepreg were sandwiched
with the AZ31 sheets to produce Mg/CF/PEEK laminated
composites. The stacking sequence was AZ31/APC-2/
AZ31/APC-2/AZ31 in unidirectional array (with the rolling
direction parallel to the continuous fiber direction). Forming
of the Mg/APC-2 composite was conducted by means of hot
pressing at 623–703 K under a pressure of 1–10 MPa for a
time duration of 10 min to 1 h. The hot pressing was
conducted under vacuum at
7  103 Pa.
Tensile tests were conducted in accordance with the
ASTM standard E8M-89. The gauge length is set to be
40 mm. The loading direction is parallel to the longitudinal
fiber direction, and the loading strain rate is
4  104 s1 .
A strain gage was attached on the gauge for the measurement
of elastic modulus and failure elongation. The fractured
specimens are observed by a JEOL JEM-6400 scanning
electron microscope (SEM), operating at 20 kV.
3. Results
3.1 Fabrication
The delamination between the Mg and APC-2 pregreg has
been the major issue during fabrication. It was expected that
the poor bonding between the prepreg and Mg alloy might be
due to the difference of surface energies between Mg and
carbon fiber and also to the large difference of coefficient of
thermal expansion (CTE).16) Without proper treatments, the
laminated composite was found to split severely upon
cooling.
The processing variables examined in this study include
the surface roughness of the Mg sheet, the removal of Mg
oxide by proper etchants, the packing sequence, the hot press
temperature, pressure, duration, and the cooling rate. It was
found that the surface-etching step appeared to be most
critical. Initially, the AZ31 sheets were hot bonded with the
APC-2 prepreg without any etching process, but only
roughened by sandpaper grounding. Upon cooling, the
resulting laminate always showed severe delamination along
the interface between the AZ31 and APC-2 layers, apparently
due to the poor bonding and the large difference of CTE
between the carbon fiber and Mg alloy.
In order to overcome the delamination problem, a poly-
olefin-based adhesive was firstly tried. Three layers of
polyolefin adhesive films with a layer thickness of

0:1 mm was placed between the AZ31 sheet and APC-2
prepreg to act as a binder. The AZ31 sheets were also
roughened with sandpapers prior to lamination. The forming
temperatures were kept low at 473 K in preventing from
adhesive decomposition, with the same forming pressure of
1.4 MPa and time duration of 15 min. It was shown that the
Mg/APC-2 laminate bonded with the 3-layer polyolefin
adhesive at 473 K showed no delamination at the interface,
but the adhesive would be squeezed by the forming pressure
and flow out of the sheets. The viscous flow of the adhesive
could result in sliding of the AZ31 sheet and the APC-2
prepreg with each other under a pressure of 1.4 MPa at 473 K.
A lower holding temperature coupled with a lower forming
pressure would reduce the sliding problem, but the bonding
quality became degraded. The adhesive seemed to offer a
bonding with minimum delamination; however, the bonding
strength was found to be low. It appears easy to tear off the
lamina from the interface. Meanwhile, the service temper-
ature of the bonded laminated composite with adhesive
would be again lower than 373 K.
In order to bond the laminate without using the adhesive,
numerous combinations of HNO3 , H2 SO4 , and other base
chemical etchants were tried, and the etchant combinations
with transition-metal ions appeared to be most effective. The
picric acid ((NO2 )3 C6 H2 OH) based etchant would result in
better bonding, but partial delamination still occur from the
composite edge. It was later found that the CrO3 based
coupling agent resulted in satisfactory bonding. The laminate
pretreated by this promising coupling agent revealed no
delamination throughout the processing and subsequent
machining and tensile loading. The detailed bonding mech-
anisms are still under investigation and will be presented
elsewhere. It is postulated, as shown in Fig. 1, that the
electron configuration of chromium might account for the
unique characteristics of CrO3 base coupling agent; the
CrO3
H2O H2CrO4
H2CrO4 + Mg
2 + MgCrO4 +
+
2H
0 Mg O
MgCrO4 + 400 C
C O Cr
O
O C + H2O
PEEK Coordination
Fig. 1 The proposed coordination mechanism for the PEEK and
chromium ion.
 Fabrication of High Performance Magnesium/Carbon-Fiber/PEEK Laminated Composites
unoccupied d orbital in the electron configuration of the
chromium atom could make its ion characteristically forming
coordination compounds.17) In this case, the oxygen atom in
the backbone of PEEK has lone-paired electrons and,
consequently, this oxygen atom may be able to form a ligand
bonding to the chromium ion, resulting in coordinate
covalent bond. Instead of the week van der Waals bonding
formed between Mg and PEEK when using other surface
etchants, the laminate pretreated with chromium oxide base
coupling agent could impart a characteristic coordinate
covalent bond at the interface between the APC-2 prepreg
and Mg phase. As a consequence, this laminate exhibited a
good bonding and no delamination along the interface during
slow or rapid cooling, as well as following aging and
machining.
For forming of the composites without adhesive, the
pressing temperature needs to be above the Tm of the PEEK
polymer (
638 K); and 673 K was found to be optimum,
similar to the finding in previous literature.18) At even higher
temperatures, the out-flow of the melted polymer became
serious and difficult to control. With a high pressing load
greater than 2 MPa, the molten polymer would be squeezed
out from the laminate. The loading pressure can be varied in
accordance with the pressing temperature. A lower temper-
ature can be coupled with a higher loading pressure.
Figure 2 shows the enlarged schematic drawing of the
resulting Mg based laminated composite, containing five
AZ31 Sheet
thickness 0.5-0.6 mm
2.7-2.8 mm
CF/PEEK prepreg
thickness 0.5-0.6mm
Fig. 2 Schematic drawing of the Mg based laminated composite, layers 1,
3 and 5 are Mg and layers 2 and 4 are APC-2 (with 4 foils). The
longitudinal direction is indicated.
Engineering Stress, S/MPa
1000
(a)
800
600
400
200
0 0
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06
Engineering Strain, e
Fig. 3 (a) Room temperature tensile stress strain curve of the Mg/CF/PEEK Mg based laminated composite along the longitudinal
direction, and (b) extraction of the Young’s modulus of the Mg/CF/PEEK Mg based laminated composite.
1615
layers. The thickness of the resulting laminated composites
depends on the layer number. For example, a five layer
composite containing three Mg foils (each
0:55 mm thick)
and two APC-2 plies (each
0:55 mm thick with 4 APC-2
layers) will measure
2:7{2:8 mm in thickness. In that case,
the resulting Mg base composite after hot pressing would
contain 61 vol% AZ31 Mg and 39 vol% APC-2 prepreg (i.e.,

24 vol% carbon fibers and
15 vol% PEEK polymer).
3.2 Room temperature tensile properties
The room temperature ultimate tensile stress-strain curves
at 4  104 s1 for the longitudinal and transverse specimens
are shown in Figs. 3(a) and 4(a), respectively. The enlarged
view of the elastic portion is shown in Figs. 3(b) and 4(b), in
which the Young’s modulus for the Mg/CF/PEEK laminated
composite was calculated. Table 1 lists the data on the
experimentally measured mechanical properties of the AZ31
Mg matrix, the reinforcement layer (CF/PEEK) and the Mg/
CF/PEEK composite, as well as the theoretically predicted
values in accordance with the rule of mixture (ROM).
As shown in Table 1, the laminated Mg composite exhibits
anisotropic behavior. The ratios of the stiffness and tensile
strength along the longitudinal and transverse directions are
2.4 and 4.9, respectively. Along the longitudinal direction,
the stiffness increases from 45 GPa of the AZ31 Mg base
alloy to 75 GPa of the composite; and the strength increases
from 290 MPa of AZ31 to 932 MPa of the composite, both a
significant increment. The high tensile strength of 932 MPa
for the Mg base composite is also much higher than the
‘ultrahigh strength’ of 610 MPa for the newly developed Mg–
Zn–Y alloys.19) It appears that the current fabrication method
1
2
for the Mg/CF/PEEK laminated composite is feasible,
3
4
effective, and easy-to-process, as compared with the liquid
5 metal infiltration method mentioned above.
The longitudinal specific stiffness and specific strength,
with the consideration of density, of the Mg/CF/PEEK
laminated composite are about 2–3 times of those of AZ31.
In other word, when applied as a long beam or long plate, the
Mg/CF/PEEK laminated composite provides a much more
promising material than Mg alloys for the purpose of weight-
saving structural characteristics.
In comparison with other metallic alloys, the current Mg
based laminated composite also exhibited much higher
Engineering Stress, S/MPa
75
(b)
Young's Modulus
50
74.6 GPa
25
0.08 0.0000 0.0002 0.0004 0.0006 0.0008 0.0010
Engineering Strain, e
1616 M. C. Kuo, J. C. Huang, M. Chen and M. H. Jen

Engineering Stress, S/MPa

Engineering Stress, S/MPa

250 35
(a) 30
(b)
200 Young's Modulus
25
150 20
100 15 30.8 GPa
10
50
5
0 0
0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.0000 0.0002 0.0004 0.0006 0.0008 0.0010
Engineering Strain, e Engineering Strain, e
Fig. 4 (a) Room temperature tensile stress strain curve of the Mg/CF/PEEK Mg based laminated composite along the transverse
direction, and (b) extraction of the Young’s modulus of the Mg/CF/PEEK Mg based laminated composite.

Table 1 Summary of the mechanical properties along the longitudinal (L) and transverse (T) directions. The volume fractions of AZ31,
carbon fiber, and PEEK in the resulting Mg/CF/PEEK composite are 61%, 24%, and 15% in volume, respectively.

Property AZ31 CF PEEK CF/PEEK CF/PEEK Mg/CF/PEEK Mg/CF/PEEK

Mg (L) (L) (T) (L) (T)
Exp Exp Exp Theo Exp Theo Exp Theo Exp Theo Exp
3
Density d (Mg/m ) 1.77 1.77 1.30 1.60 1.60 1.70 1.70
Stiffness E (GPa) 45 230 3.6 142 134 9 8.9 82.8 74.6 31.0 30.8
YS (MPa) 220 — 91 — — — 225 — 125
UTS (MPa) 290 3400 170 2127 2130 20 80 975 932 185 188
Specific stiffness
E=d
(GPa/Mg/m3 ) 25.4 129.9 2.8 83.8 5.6 43.9 18.1
Specific strength
UTS/d
(MPa/Mg/m3 ) 164 1921 131 1331 50 548 111
Elongation 15 1.1 50 1.5 1.3 6 3
(%)
Exp: Experimental data, Theo: Theoretical data.

specific modulus and tensile strength in the longitudinal 3.3 SEM observations
direction, as compiled in Table 2. In general, the specific As shown in Fig. 5(a), there are fiber pull-out and carbon
properties of the current Mg based composite along its fiber broken phenomena in the APC-2 layer under the
longitudinal direction are around double or triple of those for longitudinal tensile loading, accounting for the load transfer
the metallic alloys. of tensile stress from matrix to carbon by means of interfacial
shear stress. In Fig. 5(b), it is apparent that the failure
positions of Mg and fibers are closely related. Good bonding
between APC-2 and Mg is evident. Occasional debonding of
PEEK resin and carbon fibers within APC-2 can also be seen
Table 2 Comparison of the current Mg laminated composites with other
commercial structural metallic alloys, such as AZ91 Mg, 6061 Al, Ti– in Figs. 5(b) and (c). The ductile behavior of the AZ31 Mg
6Al–4V and 1040 steel. matrix can be realized by the abundant dimples in Fig. 5(d). It
seems that the overall failure of the laminated composite,
Property Mg/CF/PEEK Mg alloy Al alloy Ti alloy Steel
under longitudinal loading, starting from Mg failure, and
(AZ91) (6061) (Ti–6Al–4V) (1040)
ending with carbon fiber broken and pull out. Multiple failure
d (Mg/m3 ) 1.70 1.77 2.70 4.20 7.80
modes were observed, also evident from the multiple jerky
E (GPa) 75 45 72 135 210
steps in Fig. 3(a). The load transfer from the Mg matrix to
UTS (MPa) 932 290 350 1000 600
continuous fiber seemed to be highly efficient.
E=d 44 25 27 32 27
On the other hand, much simpler failure was observed
(GPa/Mg/m3 )
when loaded along the transverse direction. The fracture
UTS/d 548 163 130 238 77
surfaces of both Mg and APC-2 are flat, as shown in Fig. 6(a)
(MPa/Mg/m3 )
and the flow stress curve in Fig. 4(a) is also smooth until near
 Fabrication of High Performance Magnesium/Carbon-Fiber/PEEK Laminated Composites 1617

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

__
10 µm
Fig. 5 SEM micrographs of the fractured specimens of Mg/CF/PEEK laminated composite, taken from the longitudinal specimens.

(a) (b)
Mg

____ __
100 µm 10 µm

(c) (d)

__ __
2 µm 10 µm

Fig. 6 SEM micrographs of the fractured specimens of Mg/CF/PEEK laminated composite, taken from the transverse specimens.

overall fracture. Occasional delamination between Mg and
APC-2 can be seen in Fig. 6(b), and this delamination
behavior seems to be responsible for the sudden drop of flow
stress at e
0:02{0:026 in Fig. 4(a). As tilted to near edge-on
for the fibers, debonding between carbon fiber and PEEK has
been found, as indicated by arrows in Fig. 6(c). The fiber
itself would carry no load under transverse tests. The fracture
mode in Mg in Fig. 6(d) appears the similar for both the
transverse and longitudinal specimens. The final failure at

188 MPa seems to correspond to the fracture of Mg matrix,
since it partitions the same ratio of load (188 MPa over
290 MPa for the UTS of the Mg matrix, i.e. 188/290 or

65%) as its volume fraction (
61%).
1618 M. C. Kuo, J. C. Huang, M. Chen and M. H. Jen

Table 3 Comparison of the current Mg laminated composites along the longitudinal (L) and transverse (T) directions with previously reported data on the
ARALL (2024Al/AF/epoxy)22) and CARALL (2024Al/CF/epoxy).12,13)

Property Mg/CF/PEEK Al/AF/epoxy Al/CF/epoxy Mg/CF/PEEK Al/AF/epoxy Al/CF/epoxy

ARALL CARALL ARALL CARALL
(L) (L) (L) (T) (T) (T)
d (Mg/m3 ) 1.70 2.29 2.35 1.70 2.29 2.35
E (GPa) 75 64 84 31 49 56
YS (MPa) 225 395 485 125 228 255
UTS (MPa) 932 717 750 188 317 285
Elongation 6 2.5 1.4 2.5 12.7 9.4
(%)
E=d 44 28 36 18 21 24
(GPa/Mg/m3 )
UTS/d 548 313 319 111 138 121
(MPa/Kg/m3 )

Present work.

4. Discussion matrix used was typically the high strength aircraft-used

2024-T3 Al, with a density of 2.77 Mg/m3 and tensile
4.1 Theoretical predictions modulus, YS, UTS and elongation of 71 GPa, 355 MPa,
Theoretical predictions for the elastic modulus were done 445 MPa, and 12%, respectively,21) and the polymer matrix
according to the well-known ROM.20) of the prepreg is epoxy. Table 3 compares the current results
EL ¼ Vf Ef þ ð1  Vf ÞEm ð1Þ on AZ31Mg/CF/PEEK with previously reported data on
2024Al/AF(CF)/epoxy,12,13,22) with similar fiber volume
and fractions.
Ef E m It can be seen that the current Mg base laminate composite
ET ¼ ð2Þ
Ef ð1  Vf Þ þ Em Vf possesses the lowest density, but the highest longitudinal
tensile strength. The longitudinal specific modulus and
where EL and ET are the modulus for the longitudinal and specific strength of Mg/CF/PEEK are both much higher
transverse directions, Vf the fiber volume fraction, Ef and Em than those of the aluminum counterparts. Nevertheless, due
the fiber and matrix modulus. These equations were first
to the Mg matrix alloy used in this study is the relatively
applied to calculate the theoretical modulus and strength for
lower strength AZ31 Mg alloy, with a lower tensile modulus,
the APC-2 pregreg. The values for the Mg/APC-2 can be
YS, and UTS of 45 GPa, 220 MPa, and 290 MPa (much lower
simply evaluated by eq. (1) using their corresponding data.
than those of 2024 Al), the transverse properties of Mg/CF/
As for the tensile strength, another set of equations were PEEK are slightly inferior to those of ARALL and CARALL.
used20) for the strength of the APC-2 prepreg. Since the transverse properties are basically determined by

L ¼ Vf
f þ ð1  Vf Þ
m ð3Þ the matrix material, it is postulated that improvement can be
made with the replacement of AZ31 by other higher strength
and
rffiffiffiffiffiffi! Mg base alloys.
Vf

T ¼
m 12 ð4Þ
 5. Conclusion

The final strength for combining the Mg and APC-2 was
simply calculated by eq. (3).
From Table 1, it can be seen that both the measured
stiffness and strength of the laminated composite are very
close to the calculated value. Basically, the agreement
between the experimentally obtained and theoretically
predicted values is above 90%. It indirectly suggests that
there exists a perfect interface bonding between Mg and
APC-2 prepreg. The load transfer was efficient across the
interface.
4.2 Comparison with previous results on ARALL and
CARALL
Previous efforts have resulted in promising aluminum base
laminated composites,11–13) such as the aramid fiber-rein-
forced aluminum laminates (ARALL) and carbon fiber-
reinforced aluminum laminates (CARALL). The aluminum
(1) For better bonding between Mg and APC-2 prepreg,
proper surface treatments, including roughening and
special etching, of the AZ31 Mg alloy are necessary.
(2) The resulting Mg/CF/PEEK laminated composite can
effectively enhance the tensile stiffness and strength of
AZ31 Mg alloy to nearly 100% ROM values.
(3) With the addition of 39 vol% APC-2 prepreg, the Mg/
CF/PEEK laminated composite can triple the UTS of
AZ31 Mg alloy to as high as 932 MPa.
(4) Based on SEM examinations, the interfacial bonding
between APC-2 and Mg alloy is satisfactory. As a
result, the tensile load transfer can be prevailed by
means of shear stress occurring on the interface.
(5) The final failure of the composite under longitudinal
loading is due to the failure of carbon fibers; while that
under transverse loading is due to the Mg fracture.
 Fabrication of High Performance Magnesium/Carbon-Fiber/PEEK Laminated Composites
(6) The current Mg base laminated composite possesses
much higher longitudinal specific modulus and strength
than metallic Mg, Al, Ti alloys and steel, as well as
other Al base laminated composites such as ARALL
and CARALL.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the
sponsorship from National Science Council under the project
no. NSC90-2216-E-110-024.
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