In this paper, the inter-lamina shear strength (ILSS) of multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWNT) reinforced carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) and thin-ply composites were verified under low earth orbit (LEO) space environment. CFRP, MWNT reinforced CFRP, thin-ply CFRP and MWNT reinforced thin-ply CFRP were tested after aging by using accelerated ground simulation equipment. The used ground simulation equipment can simulate high vacuum (2.5 × 10-6 torr), atomic oxygen (AO, 9.15 × 1014 atoms/cm2·s), ultraviolet light (UV, 200 nm wave length) and thermal cycling (-70~100°C) simultaneously. The duration of aging experiment was twenty hours, which is an equivalent duration to that of STS-4 space shuttle condition. After the aging experiment, ILSS were measured at room temperature (27°C), high temperature (100°C) and low temperature (-100°C) to verify the effect of operation temperature. The MWNT and thin-ply shows good improvement of ILSS at ground condition especially with the thinply. And after LEO exposure large degradation of ILSS was observed at MWNT added composite due to the thermal cycle. And the degradation rate was much higher under the high temperature condition. But, at the low temperature condition, the ILSS was largely recovered due to the matrix toughening effect.

Keywords: Low Earth Orbit, Atomic oxygen, High vacuum, Ultra-violet light, Thermal cycling, Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), Thin-ply, Composites