An experimental study on the tensile behavior of a unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced aluminum composite at different strain rates

In this paper, dynamic and quasi-static tensile behavior of a unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced aluminum composite (Cf/Al) have been studied. The complete stress–strain curves of the composite in strain rate range from 0.001 to 1000 s−1 were obtained. The experimental results show that the tensile strength and critical strain of the Cf/Al composite are strain rate-sensitive. Micro-graphs show the presence of surface cracks as well as internal cracks in the fibers. A coated fiber bundles model has been combined with Weibull strength distribution function to establish a one-dimensional damage constitutive equation for the Cf/Al composite. This study shows that the strength of the Cf/Al composite can be described by a bimodal Weibull distribution function. The scale parameter σ0 and shape parameter β of the Weibull distribution and their relationship with strain rate are obtained from the experimental results. The simulated stress–strain curves from the model are in good agreement with the test data.