This article investigates the damage imparted on load-bearing carbon fibers during the 3D weaving process and the subsequent compaction behavior of 3D woven textile preforms. The 3D multi-layer reinforcements were manufactured on a textile loom with few mechanical modifications to produce preforms with fibers orientated in the warp, weft, and through-the-thickness directions. Tensile tests were conducted on three types of commercially available carbon fibers, 12k HTA, 6k HTS, and 3k HTS in an attempt to quantify the effect of fiber damage induced during the 3D weaving process on the mechanical and physical performance of the fiber tows in the woven composite. The tests were conducted on fiber tows sampled from different locations in the manufacturing process from the bobbin, through the creel and loom mechanism, to the final woven fabric. Mechanical and physical testing were then conducted to quantify the tow geometry, orientation and the effect of compaction during manufacture of two styles of 3D woven composite by vacuumassisted resin transfer molding (VaRTM).

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Single layer graphene oxide (GO)-polyamide 6 (PA6) nanocomposites were produced via the in situ polymerization of -caprolactum dissolved in a water-based dispersion of single layer GO. As prepared GO and nanocomposites containing 0, 0.035, 0.076, 0.44 and 0.65 wt% GO in PA6 were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman thermal analysis and tensile testing. XPS, AFM and TEM analyses confirmed that the modified Hummers method used to prepare the GO resulted in sheets of oxidized single layer graphene. It was observed using AFM that the in situ polymerization resulted in an efficient poly chain grafting and a reduction in the lateral dimensions of the sheets. The GO/PA6 nanocomposites showed an increased degradation temperature relative to neat PA6, which is an indicative of high levels of interfacial interaction and dispersion. It was observed that the addition of GO reduced the average PA6 molecular weight and acted as nucleation agent for -form crystallinity while suppressing the formation of -form crystals. Mechanical reinforcement was also observed, with a tensile strength of 60.6 MPa recorded for PA6, rising incrementally with increased GO loading to 64.9 MPa at 0.65 wt%.

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