KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

INTRODUCTION
 Fatigue failure
 Failure under cyclic or fluctuating loading
 Under cyclic loading a crack is initiated which then slowly
grows until it reaches a critical size, at which point failure
occurs
 Failure occurs at stresses below the static failures, as
encountered in standard tensile or flexural testing
 Fatigue of fibre-reinforced polymers is more complicated than
homogeneous materials such as metals:
 Different types of damage can occur ⟶ fibre fracture, matrix
cracking, fibre-matrix interface failure, delamination
 Interactions
 Different growth rate
 Parameters influence fatigue performance:
 Fibre type, matrix type, strain to failure and strength (of fibre
and matrix), laminate configuration and cyclic frequency
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

TEST METHODS
 Main requirement for material’s fatigue test coupon:
 Should fail in a manner similar to the material comparable to
structural component
 Easy to prepare and cheap
 Variation of coupon profiles in attempts to ensure failure away
from the stress concentrations at the gripped portions of the
specimen
 Incorporating waists

 Ensures failure away from the grips for static loading but
not necessarily in fatigue
 Usually restricted to across the width of coupons

 In thickness direction will disturb the lay-up of the laminate

except for unidirectional material, frequently leads to shear
failures at waist
 Simple

 Parallel-sided coupons frequently yields the longest fatigue

lives and the best all round behaviour
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

TEST METHODS
 Compression or tension-compression loading:

 More complex than tensile loading of stabilizing coupon during

compression
 Requires parallel-sided or waisted short, stable coupons for
static loading
 Stress distribution may be affected by the restraint at the
grips
 Reduced width causing edge stresses more critical

 Long coupons:

 Preferred when compressive excursion to be included in

fatigue cycle
 Necessary to provide supports to prevent buckling
 No standard antibuckling recommended; most lab developed
own devices
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

TEST METHODS
 Compression or tension-compression loading:

 More complex than tensile loading of stabilizing coupon during

compression
 Requires parallel-sided or waisted short, stable coupons for
static loading
 Stress distribution may be affected by the restraint at the
grips
 Reduced width causing edge stresses more critical

 Long coupons:

 Preferred when compressive excursion to be included in

fatigue cycle
 Necessary to provide supports to prevent buckling
 No standard antibuckling recommended; most lab developed
own devices
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

TEST METHODS
 Flexural fatigue test:

 Alternative to axial loading

 Easy to perform, require no supporting guide, lower capacity
testing machines
 Methods used for stating loading suitable for fatigue
 Need to minimize friction at the loading rollers, sometimes
necessary introduce backing rollers on the reverse side of
the coupons
 Fatigue test by shear loading:

 Less common
 Widely used shear test is short beam or interlaminar shear
test
 Easily modified for fatigue test by introducing of backing

rollers opposite the main rollers, particularly if the

deflection id to be reserved
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

UNIDIRECTIONAL COMPOSITES

Ratio of fatigue
stress at high
lifetimes to static
strength
• Smallest: glass
fibre-reinforced
material
• Greatest: carbon
fibre-reinforced
material
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

UNIDIRECTIONAL COMPOSITES
 Under tensile loading: fibres carry virtually all the load

 Tensile fatigue: behaviour expected to depend solely on the fibres

since fibres are not usually sensitive to fatigue loading → good
result of fatigue behaviour
 From the experiment, slopes of curves are determined principally
by the strain in the matrix
 Non metallic fibres

 Statistical distribution of strength determined by flaws → few

of weakest fibres will fail during fatigue loading
 Give rise to local stresses in matrix and at fibre-matrix
interface leading to development of fatigue damage with
increasing numbers of cycles
 Damage may develop at local microdefects such as misaligned
fibres, resin rich or voids
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

UNIDIRECTIONAL COMPOSITES
 Resin cracks frequently develop between the fibres, isolating
them form adjacent material
 Ineffective load carriers causing fibres to become loacally
overloaded and further static fibre failures to occur
 Close to final failure, matrix may show extensive longitudinal
splitting parallel to fibres caused by resin and interfacial
damage leading to the brush-like failure characteristic
 Stiff fibres results in relatively low strains, shallow S-N curves

 Less stiff fibres lead to greater matrix strains and steeper S-N
curves
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

MULTIDIRECTIONAL LAMINATED COMPOSITES
 Increasing percentage of non-axial fibres in laminate,
longitudinal static tensile strength and stiffness are reduced →
fewer fibres are available to support the applied loads
 Slope of tensile S-N curve increases in relation to static strength
→ layers with off-axis fibres, the mechanical properties are resin
dependent, more easily damaged in fatigue
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

MULTIDIRECTIONAL LAMINATED COMPOSITES
 Transverse layers with fibres at 90º to test direction:

 Cracks developed parallel to the fibres either during the first

tensile load cycle or with increasing numbers of cycles
 Little axial-load support gives little effect on the axial
strength or stiffness
 Angle-ply layers fibres typically at ±45º:

 Develop intraply damage causing small reductions in strength

and stiffness
 Stress concentrations at the ends of intraply cracks leading to
initiation of delamination between layers resulting decoupling
of 0º principal load bearing layers may lead to general loss of
integrity with potential for environmental attack and
reduction in compressive strength
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

FREQUENCY EFFECTS
 Fatigue testing of PMC materials

 Frequency test is chosen to minimize heating of material

 Source of heating effect → hysteresis in the resin, perhaps at
the fibre-matrix interface and few cases in the fibres
 Continuous fibres dominated laminates

 Fibres in test direction show lower strains and little hysteresis

heating and suitable frequencies of around 10 Hz
 Resin dominated laminates

 Fibres in test direction show larger strains and marked

hysteresis heating and suitable frequencies of 5 Hz or less
 Continuous fibre composite tested in fibre direction

 Effect of frequency on properties, effecting the fatigue laoding

rate is negligible as long as hysteresis heating is also
negligible
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

EDGE EFFECTS AND STRESS CONCENTRATIONS
 Edge induced stresses especially in fatigue

 Both shear and normal stresses can develop at coupon edges

arising from the mismatch of properties between the layers of
interlaminar
 Edge induces damage, apparent in static loading usually grows
with increasing of fatigue cycles
 Layers can be completely delaminated leading to potential
environmental attack and losses in compressive strength
 Stress concentrators such as notches, holes, fasteners, impact
damage and other imperfections → less effect on tensile fatigue
strength than static strength
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

EDGE EFFECTS AND STRESS CONCENTRATIONS
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

COMPRESSIVE LOADING
 In compression, tensile induced damaged

 Leading to local layer instability and layer buckling perhaps

before resin and interfacial damage within the layers has
initiated fibre microbuckling
 Fatigue lives in reversed axial loading are usually shorter than
for zero-compression or zero-tension loading
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

FABRIC BASED COMPOSITES
 Woven fibre reinfocement main alternative forms of PMC
materials
 Advantages in handling and fabrication over conventional
materials based on unidirectional prepreg
 Better containment of impact damage and improved residual
properties after impact
 Laminate static stiffness and strength are reduced due to
inevitable distortion of the fibres in the weave
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

HYBRID COMPOSITES
 Composites fabricates with two different fibres in the same resin
matrix
 E.g.: glass and carbon fibres either separately in individual
plies or intermingled in each ply
 Improved toughness of stiffness matching

 Static mechanical performance is dominated by the behaviour of

the lower strain phase, often carbon fibres
 In fatigue, different fibres result in very different composite
fatigue behaviour
 Fatigue performance is primarily strain dependent

 Dominated by the lower strain phase → phase usually stiffer

and such carries greater part of the load
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

HYBRID COMPOSITES
 Composites fabricates with two different fibres in the same resin
matrix
 E.g.: glass and carbon fibres either separately in individual
plies or intermingled in each ply
 Improved toughness of stiffness matching

 Static mechanical performance is dominated by the behaviour of

the lower strain phase, often carbon fibres
 In fatigue, different fibres result in very different composite
fatigue behaviour
 Fatigue performance is primarily strain dependent

 Dominated by the lower strain phase → phase usually stiffer

and such carries greater part of the load
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

MOISTURE ABSORPTION AND ITS AFFECTS ON
PROPERTIES
 Relative humidities vary from 0 % - 100 %
 Temperatures uses range -40 °C – 70 °C
 Most PMCs absorb moisture from humid atmospheres; usually
the resin matrix but some fibres absorb moisture
 Absorption moisture is diffusion controlled and in thin sheets is a
1-D process described by Fick’s second law of diffusion
2
=D
� �2
c = moisture concentration, t = time, D = diffusion coefficient , x = distance into panel
 Moisture absorption from humid environments at RT causing
swelling, usually a reversible process and most advanced
composites no degradation in RT properties
 Moist resin softens, resin dominated composites properties are
reduce at elevated temperature particularly as glass transition
temperature of epoxy resins is approached
KMEB 3116

Fatigue and environmental effects

OTHER ENVIRONMENTS
 Ultra-violet light, solvents, vapours, acids and alkalis

 Resistance of the matrix is crucial in protecting the fibre-matrix

interface and fibres

COMBINED FATIGUE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS

 The effect of environmental exposure on fatigue behaviour
depends on the sensitivity of the laminate to matrix properties
 Carbon fibre laminates, have strong fibre-matrix interface show
little sensitivity to moisture content
 In materials having less strong fibre-matrix bond strength and
susceptible to environmental attack; the laminate lay-up is
important
 Laminates with few fibres in the test direction being moe
susceptible than those having many fibres in the test direction