Experimental Study of the Long-term Performance of BFRP Composite Laminates under Flexural Fatigue Test

Abstract

Abstract The main objective of the present study is to investigate the flexural fatigue performance of unidirectional basalt fiber/epoxy (BFRP). Three types of composite laminate, i.e., configuration 1 with 0° and 90° directional denoted by [C1/0], [C1/90], respectively, and configuration 2 with 0° directional denoted by [C2/0] were considered. The composite laminates were manufactured using vacuum infusion technique with average thickness (3.2 ± 0.1) mm. Displacement-controlled flexural fatigue test was conducted with a frequency of 10 Hz at a stress ratio of 1. The failure criterion was taken to be a 2 % reduction of the initial flexural stiffness. The failure modes of flexural fatigue test specimens were investigated. The S − N curves of different types of composite laminates were constructed using five specimens for each one as the design curve. Two-parameter Weibull distribution function was used to statistically analyze the long-term fatigue performance of BFRP. Also, the function was implemented to incorporate failure probability into the S − N relationships. Finally, it is observed that both the plies stacking sequence, and the specimen configurations, have significant effects on the S − N relationship.