A comprehensive review of the elastic constants of carbon fibers: implications for design and manufacturing of high-performance composite materials

Abstract

Carbon fibers have been widely used for their lightweight and high mechanical properties. In order to extensively use carbon fibers, it is important to accurately understand and account for their highly anisotropic characteristics. The anisotropy of carbon fibers can be expressed as elastic constants, however evaluation of these constants is very difficult. This study reviews literatures that have analyzed the elastic constants of carbon fibers to clarify the elastic constants of various carbon fibers. This knowledge will lead to more accurate deformation and stress state calculations for structural materials, aiding future development of even higher performance composite materials. The accurate determination of the elastic constants of carbon fibers is also expected to lead to advances in the manufacturing process of carbon fibers and further improve their mechanical properties.

Keywords:

• elastic constants
• carbon fiber
• resonant ultrasound spectroscopy
• anisotropy
• shear modulus
• Poisson’s ratio
• nanoindentation
• nonlinearity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express our gratitude to Joseph McDonald of TORAY Composites America Inc. for their invaluable assistance with the English language editing of this paper.