AIMS Materials Science, 3(3): 770-795. DOI: 10.3934/matersci.2016.3.770 Received: 18 May 2016 Accepted: 27 June 2016 Published: 01 July 2016 http://www.aimspress.com/journal/Materials Research article Influence of fibre volume fraction and temperature on fatigue life of glass fibre reinforced plastics Dominik Flore *and Konrad Wegener Institute of Machine and Manufacturing (IWF), ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland *Correspondence: Dominik.Flore@gmx.de. Abstract: The influence of fibre volume fraction and temperature on fatigue life of continuous glass fibre reinforced plastics is investigated in detail. The physical causes of the two effects on the slope of the S-N-curve in fibre direction at = 0.1 are researched and can be explained with help of R micrographs. A new phenomenological approach is presented to model both effects in fibre dominated laminates with different stacking sequences using only the static ultimate strength as an input. Static and fatigue tests of different layups and fibre volume fractions are performed at different temperatures to validate the fatigue life predictions. Additionally it is derived that there is an optimal fibre volume fraction regarding a minimum damage sum. This fibre volume fraction is dependent on a given loading spectra and can be calculated using the phenomenological model. Keywords: fibre reinforced plastics; fatigue strength; fibre volume fraction; temperature effect; composites Nomenclature Strength indexes r Stress σ Elastic Modulus t tension E Poisson's c compression  Fatigue Cycles applied o upper n Fatigue Cycles allowed u lower N Damage Variable i count index D Stress Ratio calc calculated R of normalised S-N-Curve opt optimal b Intercept of the y-Axis f fibre a Fibre Volume Fraction m matrix φ Number of Plies comp composite k Area Weight r relative m Material Density g global ρ Laminate Thickness l local t Temperature T Introduction The low specific weight of continuous fibre reinforced plastics (FRP) offers light weight design opportunities. Therefore, the application of FRP materials in automotive engineering is increasing since 2000 [1,2]. Since FRP are anisotropic and inhomogeneous, as described in [3], the mechanical
AIMS Materials Science, 3(3): 770-795. DOI: 10.3934/matersci.2016.3.770 Received: 18 May 2016 Accepted: 27 June 2016 Published: 01 July 2016 http://www.aimspress.com/journal/Materials Research article Influence of fibre volume fraction and temperature on fatigue life of glass fibre reinforced plastics Dominik Flore *and Konrad Wegener Institute of Machine and Manufacturing (IWF), ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland *Correspondence: Dominik.Flore@gmx.de. Abstract: The influence of fibre volume fraction and temperature on fatigue life of continuous glass fibre reinforced plastics is investigated in detail. The physical causes of the two effects on the slope of the S-N-curve in fibre direction at R = 0.1 are researched and can be explained with help of micrographs. A new phenomenological approach is presented to model both effects in fibre dominated laminates with different stacking sequences using only the static ultimate strength as an input. Static and fatigue tests of different layups and fibre volume fractions are performed at different temperatures to validate the fatigue life predictions. Additionally it is derived that there is an optimal fibre volume fraction regarding a minimum damage sum. This fibre volume fraction is dependent on a given loading spectra and can be calculated using the phenomenological model. Keywords: fibre reinforced plastics; fatigue strength; fibre volume fraction; temperature effect; composites Nomenclature r Strength indexes σ Stress E Elastic Modulus t tension  Poisson's c compression n Fatigue Cycles applied o upper N Fatigue Cycles allowed u lower D Damage Variable i count index R Stress Ratio calc calculated b of normalised S-N-Curve opt optimal a Intercept of the y-Axis f fibre φ Fibre Volume Fraction m matrix k Number of Plies comp composite m Area Weight r relative ρ Material Density g global t Laminate Thickness l local T Temperature Introduction The low specific weight of continuous fibre reinforced plastics (FRP) offers light weight design opportunities. Therefore, the application of FRP materials in automotive engineering is increasing since 2000 [1,2]. Since FRP are anisotropic and inhomogeneous, as described in [3], the mechanical
201606302302171excel_file_matersci-03-00770.docx