Studying the effect of polymethyl methacrylate polymer opticals fibers (POFs) on the performance of composite materials based on the polyether ether ketone (PEEK) polymer matrix

Abstract

More recently, various techniques have been implemented for the sensors manufacturing purpose, such as fiber Bragg gratings fibers (FBG) that allows variable core refractive index suitable for a large scale of measurements types, fiber optic evanescent waves (FOEW) for water parameters measurement, microstructured and crystal photonic optical fibers, polymers optical fiber (POFs), and so on. In this perspective, the objective of this work is to study the reliability and the origin of the resistance of each fiber-matrix interface of the composite materials PMMA/PEEK, Topas/PEEK, and Topas-Zeonex/PEEK. The genetic simulation is based on the probabilistic approach of Weibull to calculate the damage at the interface by crossing the two damages of the matrix and the fiber respectively. The results show that the PMMA/PEEK composite is the most resistant to the mechanical stresses applied compared to those Topas/PEEK and Topas-Zeonex/PEEK; these results were confirmed by the level of damage to the interface observed for the studied materials. The performed calculations are in good agreement with the analytical results of Cox, where he demonstrated that Young’s modulus of fibers have an important influence on the shear strength of the fiber-matrix interface of composite materials. Based on the obtained results, the present study gives the opportunity for the proposed materials (PMMA/PEEK and Zeonex/PEEK) to be as potential candidates for the smart digital applications and telecoms aims.