Abstract

The primary objective of this work is to identify the effects of testing temperature and the fibre/matrix adhesion on the crushing performances of composite tubes. Axial compressive tests were carried out on glass cloth/epoxy resin composite tubes at different temperatures ranging from - 140°C to 150°C. Two kinds of composite tube were investigated; the first tubes were reinforced with glass cloth treated with amino-functional silane coupling agent, and the others were reinforced with glass cloth treated with acrylsilane coupling agent. The crushing performances of aminosilane-treated tubes were higher than those of acrylsilane-treated tubes. The crushing performances of both kinds of tube decreased with increasing testing temperature. Room temperature tests produced crush zones of the splaying mode in aminosilane-treated tubes and fragmentation mode in acrylsilane-treated tubes. At low temperatures both the aminosilane-treated and acrylsilane-treated tubes were crushed by splaying mode. At high temperatures (80°C and 100°C) the crush zones of both the tubes contained features of splaying mode as well as fragmentation mode. At temperatures above 100°C tubes were buckled without progressive crushing. The changes in crushing mode were related to the variation of mechanical properties and frictional forces with the testing temperature.