Composites Science and Technology 41 (1991) 1-12

Direct Measurement of the Axial Poisson's Ratio of

Single Carbon Fibres

Izabella Krucinska
Department of Textiles, The Technical University of L6d~, 90-924 L6d2, Zwirki 36, Poland

&

Tomasz Stypka
The Technical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

(Received 14 November 1989; revised version received 6 February 1990:

accepted 28 February 1990)

ABSTRACT

A new method of determination of the axial Poisson's ratio of single carbon

fibres is presented. The proposed method, based on a laser diffractographic
technique, provides measurements of the axial Poisson's ratio with an
accuracy of 5.7%. Measurements on three types of carbon fibres
demonstrates that the grand mean value of the axial Poisson's ratio takes
values in the range 0.26-0.28. Moreover, analysis of changes in the fibre
diameter with elongation, measured in nine different directions in the plane of
a fibre cross-section, displays the anisotropic nature of the axial Poisson's
ratio.

INTRODUCTION

Present theories of composite materials' performance usually require a

knowledge of the elastic moduli of fibre and matrix phases. Determination
of matrix properties is already well documented in the literature L2 and may
be performed, with certain assumptions, on bulk material. Analysis of the
mechanical response of carbon fibres is a much more complex problem,
however.
1
Composites Science and Technology 0266-3538/91/$03.50 © 1991 Elsevier Science Publishers
Ltd, England. Printed in Great Britain
2 Izabella Krucinska, Tomasz Stypka

Considering carbon fibres as a transversely isotropic material, t'3 five

independent elastic constants are necessary to characterize the mechanical
properties of these fibres. Currently, measurements run on a single carbon
fibre are restricted to determination of the axial Young's modulus and the
shear modulus. ~'4 Direct evaluation of the remaining moduli of carbon
fibres, i.e. the transverse Young's and shear moduli, and the axial Poisson's
ratio is an extremely difficult problem owing, principally, to the small
diameters of the fibres. Therefore, to arrive at a more accurate description of
the mechanical performance of carbon fibres, some authors incorporate
indirect techniques embodying the relations between the elastic moduli and
corresponding sets of compliance or stiffness components.
Reynolds s determined the value of compliance components and
subsequently fibre moduli, analyzing the crystallite orientation functions
obtained from X-ray analysis of individual fibres. Reynolds's consideration,
based on an assumption of uniform stress in the crystallites of a fibre under
Ioad, and precluding the existence of porosity, seems to be too great a
simplification of the problem. Riiland 6 established an empirical relationship
between fibre modulus and crystaltite orientation, including a consideration
of porosity, but this is restricted to the prediction of Young's modulus.
Other authors ~.3 have suggested the use of ultrasonic techniques to derive
the set of elastic moduli of carbon fibres. This group of methods employs an
ultrasonic analysis of all of the elastic stiffness components of unidirectional
composite materials reinforced with carbon fibres of various volume
fractions. The application of theories interpreting composite properties in
terms of phase properties, concentration and geometry then enables a set of
fibre stiffness components to be deduced. To specify completely the elastic
response of M o d m o r e type 1, type 2 and Rolls-Royce carbon fibres, Dean
and Turner 1 used an ultrasonic pulse transmission technique and
subsequently incorporated the results obtained in equations resulting from
Hashin and Rosen's theory7 Too high a scatter in measured values of the
C~ 3 stiffness coefficient for composite samples precludes the calculation of
this constant for fibres. Dean and Turner's proposed method does not
provide the possibility for accurate evaluation of the axial Poisson's ratio of
carbon fibres. Nevertheless, on the basis of experimental results and some of
Hashin and Rosen's theoretical considerations, Dean and Turner assumed
the value of 0-35 for the axial Poisson's ratio of the carbon fibres they
studied. A similar method of analysis of fibre stiffness components was
presented by Smith, 3 who used the ultrasonic immersion technique and sets
of equations derived by Halpin and Tsai 8 and Behrens. 9't° The application
of Behrens's expressions enables the computation of a value of C~3 and
subsequently the axial Poisson's ratio of carbon fibres. Whilst considering
the reliability of individual elastic moduli, it should be mentioned that the
 Axial Poisson's ratio of single carbonfibres 3

Cl 3 elastic stiffness coefficient of a composite material influences ultrasonic

propagation very weakly and is known only to within approximately 20%.
One may therefore suspect that the accuracy of the determination of the
axial Poisson's ratio of carbon fibres might be of the same order.
The other approach to determination of the elastic moduli of carbon
fibres might be based on the method presented by Whitney and Riley. li In
particular, their research was concerned with computation of the axial and
transverse Young's moduli and the axial Poisson's ratio of a unidirectional
composite material as a function of the respective elastic moduli of the
constituents. To determine experimental values of Poisson's ratio for
composite materials, rosette strain gauges were used in conjunction with an
Instron Tensile Testing Machine. The experimental data demonstrate
considerable disagreement with theoretical predictions. In the opinion of the
authors, the large errors in the Poisson's ratio data were probably caused by
the measurement technique rather than validity of the theoretical
expression. Thus, the application of a more accurate measurement technique
for investigation of composite materials would provide a new method of
determination of Poisson's ratio of carbon fibres.
The review of literature presented above shows that the application of
indirect methods creates a situation where the reliability of the elastic
moduli of carbon fibres depends upon the accuracy of the measurements run
on the composite specimens and upon the validity of the theoretical
expression used to derive data for the fibres. Thus, the primary objective of
this paper is to propose a new, accurate method for determination of the
axial Poisson's ratio of single carbon fibres, which seems to minimize the
number of sources of measurement errors.

SELECTION OF A M E A S U R E M E N T T E C H N I Q U E

Let us consider carbon fibres as a transversely isotropic, linear elastic

material. The axial Poisson's ratio of this kind of fibre with a cross-sectional
shape close to circular can be determined from the following equation:

ep Adl Ad/d
(1)
ew dAl Al/l

where eo is the relative change of fibre diameter, 8wis the fibre strain, Adis the
change of fibre diameter, d is the initial fibre diameter measured after
straightening, l is the initial length of a fibre specimen measured after
straightening and A1 is the fibre elongation.
4 lzabella Krucinska, Tomasz Stypka

Following the well-known theory of error analysis, 12 the maximum error

of the axial Poisson's ratio, ev, takes the form

ev= a-7 e , + =-e w (2)

\as. / J
where e=. is the maximum error of a relative change of fibre diameter and e~
is the maximum error of strain.
After some manipulation, the maximum error of the axial Poisson's ratio
can be expressed as

,7 =
/rCe-r
VL\ ) +
C< 2+ 1 )21
+ \6U i3)
where eAa is the maximum error of a change of the fibre diatemer, ea is the
maximum error of the initial diatemer of a fibre, eat is the maximum error of
fibre elongation and e~ is the maximum error of the initial length of a fibre
specimen.
To select an appropriate measurement technique for providing the
evaluation of the axial Poisson's ratio with sufficient accuracy it is necessary
to define the required levels of constituent errors involved in eqn (3).
Let us assume a priori that we analyze a carbon fibre characterized by the
following set of values:
the initial fibre diameter, d = 8#m;
the initial length of a fibre specimen, l = 50mm;
the minimum fibre elongation, Al= 0.3 ram;
the axial Poisson's ratio, v = 0"35.
Assuming an equal contribution from all of the components of eqn (3),
generating the maximum relative error of the axial Poisson's ratio at a level
of 2%, the following maximum values of the constituent errors are required:
e~= 500#m, eat= 3ktm and ed = 0"08 #m, ead= 1"68 x 10-*/~m.
These values demonstrate a considerable shift in the accuracy require-
ments, emphasizing simultaneously the most difficult components of the
axial Poisson's ratio to be measured. The attainment of the mentioned levels
of the maximum errors et and eat can be simply provided by a micrometer
screw gauge, but the evaluation of fibre diameters and their changes requires
application of much more sophisticated methods.
Analysis of various methods, including interference,13 air flow ~ and
diffraction, 15-~7 led us to the conclusion that application of the laser
diffractographic technique described by Stypka ~6 would provide the
required accuracy of fibre diameter measurements. This method is based on
the analysis of the diffraction pattern produced as a result of Fraunhofer
diffraction of laser light on the edges of opaque fibres. Analyzing the
 Axial Poisson's ratio of single carbon fibres 5

separation of the nth-order minima, the fibre diameter may be calculated

from the following equation:
n2
d= (4)
sin (arctg (a,/2b))
where n is the fringe order, b is the distance between the specimen and the
screen, a, is the separation of the nth-order minima and 2 is the wavelength
of the laser light.
According to the error analysis presented in Refs 16 and 18, the proposed
laser diffractographic technique provides measurement of fibre diameters
and their changes with maximum relative errors of 1 and 5%, respectively.

APPARATUS

The apparatus, which was specially designed for measurements of the axial
Poisson's ratio of carbon fibres (see Fig. 1), consists of a fibre straining unit
and a diffraction measurement system set up from an Ne-He laser and an
automatic diffraction pattern analyzer.
The construction of the straining unit (1) accomplishes three basic
functions. First, the application of a special transmission system enables the
rotation of a mounted fibre around its axes in the angular range of 0-360 °
without introducing additional tension in the fibre. The second function
relates to the accurate measurement of the initial fibre length, which should
be performed after removing all kinks and crimp along an entire length of
the fibre specimen. Taking account of procedures pertaining to textile
fibres, 19 the initial length of fibres should be measured under pretension
loads of about 50 mN. The recording of such small pretension load values is
provided by the use of a membrane strain gauge sensor. The third function is
10

6 9 /8 2

Fig. 1. Layout of the measurement apparatus.

6 lzabella Krucinska, Tomasz Stvpka

the straining of fibres by means of two grips, the upper one directly attached
to the membrane of a strain gauge sensor and the bottom one combined with
a screw micrometer. After mounting a carbon fibre (2) in the grips of the
straining unit (1) and measuring the initial length of a fibre specimen, laser
light (3) is directed at the fibre. As a result of the Fraunhofer phenomenon, a
diffraction pattern is produced and the initial diameter of the fibre is
determined by an automatic analyzer (4). This analyzer consists of two
analogous units which locate the position of the nth-order symmetrically
placed minima. The location of minima is realized by photodetectors i5),
each consisting of two photocells (6) driven by a micrometer screw (7) along
the diffraction pattern. The position of the nth-order minimum is located
when the difference in photoelectric signals induced by the photocells is
equal to zero, the photodetectors being then halted by the servomechanism
(8), used as a steering unit for the motors (9). The number of rotations of the
micrometer screw (7) is transformed into the number of impulses by an angle
transducer (10). The transformed number of impulses describing the
position of the nth-order minimum is transmitted to an adder (11) and then
to a calculator (12). On the basis of the given value of the wavelength of laser
light, the distance between the sample and the screen, and the chosen fringe
order, the value of the fibre diameter is determined. The use of this apparatus
permits the determination of individual components of the axial Poisson's
ratio with the following errors:
eL = 100/~m e~"l = 0"22%
e.xt = 5 l~m eal/Al = 1"67%
ea = 0-08/.Lm q / d = 1.00%
e~. = 1 E - 0 3 ~tm eAa/kd= 5"38%
Substituting these values in eqn (3) leads us to conclude that the described
method provides a measurement of the axial Poisson's ratio with a
maximum relative error of 5-7%.

PROCEDURE

Analysis of the results shown in Ref. 20 suggests that measurements of the

axial Poisson's ratio of carbon fibres performed only in one angular
direction about the normal, in the plane of a fibre cross-section, led to the
results showing considerable disagreement with Lempri~re's limitation 21 on
the axial Poisson's ratio of a transversely isotropic material given by the
inequality
--l<v<l
 Axial Poisson's ratio of single carbon fibres 7

This observation inspired the authors to carry out a much more detailed
examination of the phenomenon occurring in strained carbon fibres by
introducing a rotation of fibres under examination about their axes. Taking
into account the rule of measurements of fibre diameter by the laser
diffractographic technique, the angular direction of fibre position has been
varied in 20 ° steps in the range 0-180 °, i.e. for each studied level of
elongation nine diameters of tested carbon fibres have been analyzed. The
elongation of the fibres was varied in 0.l-ram steps.

MATERIAL STUDIED

To complete the main objective of this paper three types of carbon fibres
were studied: 38/III, WS/2/3 and Safril. The characteristics of mechanical
properties of these fibres are presented in Table 1.22
TABLE 1
Mechanical Properties of Fibres Studied

Type of Mean Tensile Y o u n g ' s Breaking

fibre diameter strength moduhts strain
d (#m) a/(GPa) E (GPa) ~: (%)

38/III 8'22 2.74 196'7 1'39

WS/2/3 7.68 4.70 224'0 2-10
Safril 7.61 3'03 194'2 1-56

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The form of results of the laser diffractographic measurements precludes the

possibility of presentation of all of them. The main problems concerning the
analysis of the axial Poisson's ratio of carbon fibres are therefore exemplified
by a representative set of data obtained for one typical carbon fibre of
WS/2/3. This set of results is shown in Table 2 and illustrated in Fig. 2. To
emphasize the changes in diameter of fibres with elongation, the dimensions
presented in Fig. 2 were calculated, on the basis of results in Table 2 (columns
1-4), according to the formula
dr = 20~d- 8) + 8
The analysis of results obtained for each type of fibre studied displays the
great variation in changes of fibre diameter measured in various angular
directions. Consequently, it is possible to identify several different values of
the axial Poisson's ratio measured in the plane of a fibre cross-section.
 8 lzabella Krucinska, Tomasz Stypka

¢ ,

0 °

Fig. 2. Transformed fibre dimensions measured at various angular directions in the plane of
a cross-section for different levels of elongation. ~ , Al=O.0mm: •, Al=0-4mm: ,~, A/=
0'5 ram; E], AI = 0"6 mm.

TABLE 2
Data for One Typical Carbon Fibre of WS/2/3

Ib° Transrerse dimension Changes ~ff" Poisson's ratio

d (Itm) transverse dimension v
Ad (Itnl)

AI: 0.0 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.4 0,5 0.6 0.4 @5 0.6
(mrrt) (,,ntn) (ran'l) (mm) (ram) {ram) (mm)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 I0

0 8 " 1 6 6 8.174 8.177 8"170 --0.008 --0-011 --0.01t --0"ll --0-12 --0-I
20 8 " 2 0 0 8.192 8"185 8"181 0"008 0"015 0'019 0'11 0-17 0-18
40 8 - 1 8 7 8.161 8-150 8-143 0-026 0"037 0-044 0"36 0.41 0.41
60 8 " 1 3 3 8-075 8.046 8-039 0-058 0.087 0-094 0"81 0-97 0.87
80 8 - 0 2 4 7.947 7-931 7-933 0-077 0.093 0-09l 1.09 1-05 0186
100 7-9207.872 7-863 7.864 0-048 0-057 0"056 0.69 0-65 0.54
120 7 - 8 7 9 7.882 7-886 7.886 -0-003 --0-007 --0-007 --0.04 --0-08 -0-07
140 7 - 9 4 5 7.986 7-986 7.986 -0-041 --0"041 --0"041 --0-59 --0-47 -0"39
160 8.078 8-114 8-124 8"124 --0-036 --0.046 --0.046 --0.51 --0-52 --0-43
Mean value
8-059 8'045 8-039 8.037 0"20 0-23 0-21
 Axial Poisson's ratio of single carbon fibres 9

TABLE 3
Mean Values of the Axial Poisson's Ratio for Different Levels of
Elongation

Types of Level of elongation (ram)

fibres
0"3 0"4 0"5 0"6 0"7 0"8 0"9

38/III 0'26 0"27 0'30 0-28 -- -- --

WS/2/3 -- 0"24 0"28 0"28 0"28 0"26 0"28
Safril 0-26 0"27 0"29 0.29 -- -- --

Considering, for instance, the data presented in Table 2, the changes of fibre
diameters for a level of elongation AI = 0.4 mm take values from -0.041 to
0.077, and the axial Poisson's ratio changes in the range from - 0 . 5 9 to 1.09.
Moreover, the analysis of the axial Poisson's ratio calculated for one selected
angular direction but at various levels of elongation demonstrates in many
cases the significant variation in the values attained by this elastic constant
(see Table 2, angle 80°). This contradicts the general assumption that carbon
fibres may be considered to be linear elastic materials, but is understandable
when we analyze the graphs presented in Fig. 2. The graphical illustration of
data obtained indicates that the introduction of tensile stress into carbon
fibres as a result of a uniaxial tensile test has resulted not only in the
contraction of fibre diameters but also in the rotation of a fibre cross-section
around the normal. This means that the application of increasing strains
causes changes in the angular position of the fibre diameter measured at the
initial stage. The direct computation of changes in fibre diameters without
taking into consideration the phenomenon described above has led to
incorrect interpretation of results obtained, as manifested by suggested
increases in fibre diameter with elongation (see Table 2, columns 5-7). To
overcome these deficiencies, the problem of the axial Poisson's ratio

TABLE 4
Analysis of Variance

Types of Scatter Degreeof Sum of F-ratio Critical

fibres freedom squares value ralue

38/11I Within 39 0-7100 3.03 26.4

Between 3 1.8 ! E-- 02
WS/Z3 Within 76 1.246 9 2"47 9"16
Between 5 3-31 E - 02
Sa fril Within 51 1.936 7 11.08 26.4
Between 3 1-03E-02
 10 Izabella Krucinska, Tomas: Stypka

measurement should be considered in the context of changes in the fibre

diameter corresponding to resultant changes of the whole cross-sectional
shape. Therefore, in the final part of this paper a new measure characterizing
the resultant diameter of fibres has been employed in the form of a mean
value of nine measured diameters of the fibres tested. Consequently, for each
specimen of carbon fibre only one value of the axial Poisson's ratio for the
kth level of elongation has been computed (see Table 2, bottom row).
Calculations carried out for each of 25 specimens of 38/III, WS/2/3 and
Safril fibres have resulted in the mean values of the axial Poisson's ratio
presented in Table 3. The analysis of variance completed separately for each
type of carbon fibre studied (see Table 4) led to the conclusion that there is no
reason (at a significant level of ~ = 0"01) to reject the hypothesis concerning
the equality of the mean values of the axial Poisson's ratio computed for the
different levels of elongation. All computed values of the axial Poisson's
ratio for a given type of carbon fibre can reasonably be thought of as coming
from the same population, which confirms the linear elasticity of carbon
fibres. The grand mean values and standard deviations characterizing these
populations are presented in Table 5. The cited results demonstrate the
similarity of the grand mean values of the axial Poisson's ratio for all three of
the fibres studied, 38/III, WS/2/3 and Safril. Simultaneously, analysis of the
values of standard deviation indicates that the axial Poisson's ratio is
characterized by great variability; in tact, for the carbon fibres 38/III,
WS/2/3 and Safril, this takes values in the ranges 0"03-0"56, 0-01-0"56 and
0"01-0"69, respectively.
TABLE 5
The Axial Poisson's Ratio for Three Types of Fibre
Studied

Type ol'fibre Grand mean value SD

38/III 0.27 0"13

WS/2/3 0'26 0" 12
Safril 0-28 0" 18

CONCLUSIONS

(1) The laser diffractographic method provides measurements of the axial

Poisson's ratio with an accuracy of 5"7%.
(2) Analysis of changes in fibre diameter with elongation, measured in nine
different directions in the plane of a fibre cross-section, demonstrates
the anisotropic character of the axial Poisson's ratio.
 Axial Poisson's ratio of single carbonfibres 11

(3) The anisotropic character of the axial Poisson's ratio of the carbon
fibres studied implies the necessity of determination of the resultant
contraction characterizing the changes in the shape of a whole fibre
cross-section. The introduction of the resultant contraction in the form
of a mean value of nine fibre transverse dimensions measured at various
levels of elongation has led to the confirmation of the linear elastic
behaviour of carbon fibres.
(4) The grand mean values of the axial Poisson's ratio of the fibres 38/III,
WS/2/3 and Safril demonstrate great similarity, with values of 0.26, 0.27
and 0.28, respectively.
(5) Analysis of standard deviations of the axial Poisson's ratio computed
for 38/III, WS/2/3 and Safril carbon fibres indicates that this elastic
constant is characterized by great variability and takes values in the
ranges 0.03-0.56, 0.01-0.56 and 0-01-0.69, respectively.

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12 lzabella Krucinska, Tornasz So'pka

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