Fatigue behavior and self-heating mechanism of novel glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite

Abstract

In this study, fatigue properties of a novel continuous glass fiber reinforced composite with an acrylic-based thermoplastic matrix Elium®, have been investigated and S-N curves were obtained. The effect of various fiber orientations of the plies with glass fibers of 0°/90°/±45°, 0°/90°, and ±45° alignment has been evaluated. The highest fatigue strengths have been recorded for composites with 0°/90° glass fiber ply orientations. Composite with ±45° alignment has the lowest fatigue strengths in S-N curves. Stiffness degradation of the composites with 0°/90° and 0°/90°/±45° at medium fatigue stress levels was calculated and showed higher degradation for stacking having more off-axis plies, i.e. 0°/90°/±45° alignment. Temperature increase during fatigue testing was measured using an IR camera for a medium fatigue stress level for 0°/90°/±45° alignment. Temperature increases were calculated for all stress amplitudes for composites with 0°/90°/±45° and 0°/90° alignment cross-ply sequences. The temperatures obtained were all below the glass transition temperature of the material. The 0°/90°/±45° plies had a higher temperature effect than 0°/90° plies in both analytical calculations and observations.

Keywords:

• thermoplastic composites
• Elium
• GFRP
• mechanical testing
• fatigue
• infrared thermography
• fiber orientation
• light weighting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme [76873]; Bilimsel Araştırma Projeleri Birimi, İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi [MDK-2021-43084].