The temperature dependence of thermal expansion, thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of T700 carbon fibre (T700 CFs) /epoxy composite and T800 CF/epoxy composite were investigated. The mechanical and thermal properties of the unidirectional composite material laminates (0°/90°) at low temperature were studied. The results show that comparing the composite material T700 CFs with T800 CFs, the thermal expansion and thermal conductivity performances of T800 CFs (0°/90°) are all smaller than those of T700 CFs. Typically, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of T800 CFs in 0° is very low in the temperature range of 120-300K, which reaches as low as -0.4×10-6 K-1. The value of thermal conductivity of this material at 0° is about 3.2 W.(m.K)-1 at room temperature. Tensile and compression tests indicate that the tensile strength of T800 CFs in 0° direction at 77K reaches 2310 MPa, while the compressive strength is about 852 MPa. This composite material may possibly be exploited to design the critical components for practical applications such as hydrogen storage tanks.

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering