Abstract: Damage tolerance of woven carbon fiber reinforced poly(phenylene ether ketone)(woven CF/PEK-C) laminates has been studied on bending after falling-weight impact.Woven CF/PEK-C laminates were obtained by stacking PEK-C films with carbon cloth andthen consolidating at temperature above T_g of PEK-C.The penetrant-enhanced x-radiogra-phy was used to determine the locations and extents of delaminations and matrix crackscaused by impact.It is shown that the damage mode of woven CF/PEK-C can be classifiedinto delamination, matrix crack, fiber breakage and debonding between fibers and thematrix.The residual flexural strength of a damaged laminate for the highest impact energywas about 50% of that before damaging.

Key words: thermoplastic composite, fracture, damage tolerance