Investigation on tempering process parameters of in-situ consolidation CF/PEEK thermoplastic composites

In this paper, the effect of in-situ consolidation (ISC), hot-press (HP) tempering, and vacuum-bag-only (VBO) tempering process parameters on interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of CF/PEEK laminates is investigated. Short beam shear (SBS) tests are performed on the prepared samples to characterize the load-displacement response, the ILSS trend, and the microscopic influence mechanism of different preparation processes on the ILSS. The experimental results show that the highest ILSS of the HP tempered samples reached 73.07 MPa, which is 132.04 % higher than the ILSS of the ISC samples. Furthermore, the highest ILSS of the VBO tempered sample is only 66.11 % of the HP tempered sample. Microscopic mechanism analysis revealed that the most direct reasons for the improved ILSS are stronger CF and PEEK binding interfaces, more stable crystal structures, and more uniform fiber distribution. The proposed method provides an important reference for green thermoplastic composites (TPC) for highly reliable and low-cost applications in aerospace skin types.