Experimental Investigation on the In-Plane Creep Behavior of a Carbon-Fiber Sheet Molding Compound at Elevated Temperature at Different Stress States

The creepage behavior of one thermosetting carbon fiber sheet molding compound (SMC) material was studied applying in-plane loading at 120 °C. Loads were applied in bending, tension and compression test setups at the same in-plane stress level of 47 MPa. Different creep strain rates were determined. The creep strain rate in flexural loading was significantly higher than in tensile loading. The test specimens in compression loading collapsed within minutes and no findings regarding the creep strain rates were possible. Overall, it was observed that the thermosetting press resin of this industrially used material had only little creep load bearing capacity at the mentioned temperature when loaded in mixed stress states. The test data has high usage for estimating design limits of structural loaded SMC components at elevated temperature.