Abstract
The goal of the present study was to investigate the influence of carbon nanofibers (CNF) and/or piezoelectric (PZT) particles on the fracture behaviour of carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminates. For this purpose the fillers were added as dopants in the epoxy matrix of the laminates. An increase of 100% in fracture energy was observed after the addition of 1% CNF in the matrix of the laminates, while the introduction of PZT particles led to reduction in fracture energy, mainly due to the brittle character of the particle inclusions. In addition, the acoustic emission technique was used for monitoring the fracture process of the laminates.