Experimental Study of Fatigue Damage Accumulation in Laminated Carbon Reinforced Fiber Plastics

Abstract

Abstract It is necessary to achieve high fatigue strength in order to apply carbon reinforced fiber plastics (CRFP) for critical elements subjected to vibration. Gradual accumulation of fatigue damage is accompanied by changes in the material stiffness and natural frequencies. The purpose of this work is to found experimental data on the change of the elastic characteristics of layered CRFP as fatigue damage accumulates. The object of the study is standard samples made of unidirectional carbon/epoxy fiber with different layering schemes. The samples were subjected to fatigue tests under cyclic tension with constant amplitude. The test of each sample was stopped several times at different loading stages to execute experimental modal analysis and non-destructive inspection of the appeared defects. The found natural frequencies were used to solve the inverse problem of identifying the elastic parameters of the laminate monolayer: two Young’s modulus, shear modulus and Poisson’s ratio. As a result, the dependences of these parameters on the relative fatigue life were obtained. These dependences, together with the results of non-destructive testing, can be used to describe the process of fatigue damage accumulation and for the subsequent development of methods for the fatigue life prediction.