Advanced Treatments of Aramid Fibers for Composite Laminates

Aramid fibers form an important group of fibers for composite applications. These applications range through light-weight shell structures, protective structures in ballistic applications such as helmets and various shields, protective clothing, and car tires, for instance. For structural applications, the composites of aramid fibers and high performance resins must form integral and strong parts. Therefore, the fiber-matrix interface places a significant role. Numerous surface treatments and fiber modifications have been applied over the years to adjust aramid fibers. On the way to improve and optimize these interfaces, various test methods have been applied. The recent studies apply microtesting, e.g., in the form of microdroplet tests. Furthermore, the material properties of the resin, fiber, and interface are used to create numerical models. However, the current challenge is to collect statistically reliable data as well as the necessary parameters to validate the simulations on different length scales.