Response of notched carbon/PEEK and carbon/epoxy laminates subjected to tension fatigue loading

In this study a comparison is made between the tensile static and fatigue behaviours of quasi-isotropic carbon/PEEK and carbon/epoxy notched laminates, selected as separate representatives of both tough and brittle matrix composites. Damage progression was monitored by various non-destructive (ultrasonic scanning and x-radiography) and destructive (deply and microscopic examinations) techniques, and by continuously measuring the change in stiffness, in order to identify the effect of damage on mechanical properties.
The experimental observations indicated that fatigue damage in carbon/epoxy laminates consists of a combination of matrix cracks, longitudinal splitting and delaminations which attenuate the stress concentration and suppress fibre fracture at the notch; as a consequence, fatigue failure can be reached only after very high numbers of cycles while tensile residual strengths continuously increase over the range of lives investigated (10³–10⁶ cycles). Due to the superior matrix toughness and the high fibre-matrix adhesion, the nature of fatigue damage in carbon/PEEK laminates strongly depends on the stress level. At high stresses the absence of early splitting and delaminations promotes the propagation of fibre fracture therefore resulting in poor fatigue performances and significant strength reductions; while at low stress levels damage modes are matrix controlled and this again translates into very long fatigue lives. These results indicate a strong influence of the major damage mechanisms typical of the two material systems on the behaviour of the laminates, with the nature, more than the amount, of damage appearing as the controlling parameter of the material response up to failure.     

The fatigue damage mechanics of notched carbon fibre/PEEK laminates

A model is presented for the strength, post-fatigue residual strength and damage propagation in notched, cross-ply carbon fibre/polyetheretherketone (PEEK) laminates. Fracture mechanics principles are used to predict quasi-static damage growth, and the application of a Paris law permits extension to fatigue damage. Strength is predicted by applying a failure criterion based on the tensile stress distribution in the 0° plies, as modified by damage (either quasi-static or fatigue). The volume dependence of strength is included by using a simple Weibull distribution. The parameters of the model are determined from independent experiments. Good agreement with experimental results is obtained. Comparisons are made with previous results from carbon fibre/epoxy laminates. The behaviour of the carbon fibre/PEEK is similar, although the extent of delamination and matrix cracking is reduced owing to the higher inherent toughness of the matrix.     

The impact properties and damage tolerance and of bi-directionally reinforced fiber metal laminates

Fiber metal laminates are an advanced hybrid materials system being evaluated as a damage tolerance and light weight solution for future aircraft primary structures. This paper investigates the impact properties and damage tolerance of glass fiber reinforced aluminum laminates with cross-ply glass prepreg layers. A systematic low velocity impact testing program based on instrumented drop weight was conducted, and the characteristic impact energies, the damage area, and the permanent deflection of laminates are used to evaluate the impact performance and damage resistance. The post-impact residual tensile strength under various damage states ranging from the plastic dent, barely visible impact damage (BVID), clearly visible impact damage (CVID) up to the complete perforation was also measured and compared. Additionally, the post-impact fatigue behavior with different damage states was also explored. The results showed that both GLARE 4 and GLARE 5 laminates have better impact properties than those of 2024-T3 monolithic aluminum alloy. GLARE laminates had a longer service life than aluminum under fatigue loading after impact, and they did not show a sudden and catastrophic failure after the fatigue crack was initiated. The damage initiation, damage progression and failure modes under impact and fatigue loading were characterized and identified with microscopy, X-ray radiography, and by deply technique.     

Fatigue behavior of carbon/epoxy composites under pretorsion and low‐energy impact effects

Abstract

This work presents a systematic study of the fatigue behavior and macroscopic analysis of carbon/epoxy [0/45/90/‐45]_2S quasi‐isotropic composite laminates. The failure mechanism and fatigue effects of the composites under pretorsional twist and low‐energy impact were investigated in this research. The coupling effects of the laminates under twist and low‐energy impact and the residual tensile strength and the S‐N curve under various stress levels were also studied.     

On the impact performance of carbon fibre laminates with epoxy and PEEK matrices

A study was made of the mechanical properties and impact performance of carbon fibre/PEEK (0,90), ($\text{±45}$) and ($\text{±45,0}$) laminates and comparisons were made with similar carbon fibre/epoxy laminatesFibre dominated properties such as plain tensile strength were similar to those of epoxy laminates with similar fibres and volume fractions. Because of the increased toughness of PEEK there was less extensive matrix cracking, even though there was fibre debonding, and this gave increased transverse and shear cracking strains, increased shear strengths but decreased notched tensile strengths. The lower modulus and yield stress of PEEK caused lower compressive strengths, but PEEK absorbed little moisture and at 120°C moisture had little effect on mechanical properties.Dropweight impact produced less extensive damage in carbon fibre/PEEK laminates. Residual tensile strengths were similar but, because of the less extensive damage and greater delamination fracture energy, the residual compressive strengths were significantly greater with a PEEK matrix.Microscopic examination showed less matrix cracking and more fibre buckling in the carbon fibre/PEEK and this is discussed in relation to mechanical properties.     

Off-axis tensile fatigue assessment based on residual strength for the unidirectional 45° carbon fiber-reinforced composite at room temperature

The tensile fatigue behavior of unidirectional carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic and thermosetting laminates was examined at room temperature. Tension-tension cyclic fatigue tests were conducted under load control at a sinusoidal frequency of 10 Hz to obtain stress-fracture cycles (S-N) relationship. The fatigue limits of carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic laminates (CF/PA6) and thermosetting laminates (CF/Epoxy) were found to be 28.0 MPa (48% of the tensile strength) and 56.2 MPa (63% of the tensile strength), respectively. Two types (in constant and incremental loading way) of loading-unloading low cycle fatigue tests were employed to investigate the modulus history of fatigue process for announcing the fatigue mechanism. The residual tensile strength of specimens that survived fatigue loading maintained with the increase of fatigue cycles and applied stress. Examination of the fatigue-loaded specimens revealed that the more flexible/ductile trend of resins and the formation of micro-cracks at the interface between fiber and matrix was facilitated during high fatigue loading (⩾fatigue limit stress), while no interfacial/matrix damage in resins was detected during low fatigue loading (<fatigue limit stress), which was consider to be the governing mechanism of strength maintain during fatigue loading.     

Evaluation of long-term durability in high temperature resistant CFRP laminates under thermal fatigue loading

Thermal fatigue tests were conducted on high temperature resistant carbon fiber reinforced plastics cross-ply laminates to evaluate microscopic damage progress which affects macroscopic mechanical behavior of the laminates. Materials system used were thermoplastic polyetheretherketone based, AS4/PEEK and thermoset bismaleimide based, G40-800/5260. Several types of laminate configuration were used to clarify the effect of ply thickness on microscopic damage progress. Microscopic damages were observed using optical microscopy and soft X-ray radiography. Energy release rate associated with transverse cracking was calculated using variational analysis. The modified Paris law was used to predict transverse cracking. From comparison to mechanical fatigue test results, it is clarified that transverse crack accumulation rate was larger under thermal fatigue loading at same energy release rate range due to the dependence of the fracture toughness on temperature.     

Statistical prediction of fatigue failure of fibre reinforced composite materials

A statistical approach is proposed to evaluate the residual strength and life of unidirectional and angle-ply composite laminates subjected to in-plane tensile cyclic stresses. The method is based on the extension of previous static failure criteria describing independently the fibre failure and matrix failure modes, combined with the statistical nature of fatigue failure of fibre-reinforced composites. The static and fatigue strengths of composite laminates at any off-axis angle are evaluated using the fatigue failure functions for the three principal failure modes, which are determined from the fatigue behaviour of unidirectional composites subjected to longitudinal and transverse tension as well as in-plane shear stresses. The evaluations of the fatigue strength of unidirectional E-glass/epoxy laminates under off-axis fatigue loading and angle-ply S-glass/epoxy laminates under in-plane fatigue loading show good agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental results.     

Cooling rate influences in carbon fibre/PEEK composites. Part III: impact damage performance

The effect of cooling rate on impact damage performance of carbon fibre/polyether ether ketone (PEEK) matrix composite is characterised based on the instrumented drop-weight impact test, scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) damage evaluation and compression-after-impact (CAI) test. Judging from the incipient impact load, incipient impact energy and total damage area, the ability to resist damage initiation upon impact was higher in the order of fast-cooled carbon/PEEK, slow-cooled carbon/PEEK and carbon/epoxy laminates. Furthermore, the threshold impact energy was higher and the CAI strength reduction rate was lower for the fast-cooled specimen than the slow-cooled counterpart, strongly indicating higher impact damage tolerance of the former system. The present study demonstrates that the impact damage performance and other important properties of carbon/PEEK composites can be optimised, if not maximised, by proper control of processing conditions, especially the cooling rate.     

含低速冲击损伤复合材料层合板剩余压缩强度及疲劳性能试验研究

对T300/QY8911复合材料层板进行了低速冲击、 冲击后压缩以及冲击后疲劳试验研究。通过对冲击后的层板进行目视检测和超声C扫描获得了层板受低速冲击后的若干损伤特征; 在压-压疲劳试验中, 测量了损伤的扩展情况。讨论了冲击能量与损伤面积以及冲击后剩余压缩强度的关系, 分析了含冲击损伤层合板在压缩载荷及压-压疲劳载荷下的主要破坏机制。结果表明, 低速冲击损伤对该类层板的强度和疲劳性能影响很大, 在3.75 J/mm的冲击能量下, 层板剩余压缩强度下降了65%; 在压-压疲劳载荷作用下, 其损伤扩展大致可分为两个阶段, 占整个疲劳寿命约60%的前一阶段损伤扩展较为缓慢; 而疲劳寿命的后半阶段损伤则开始加速扩展, 并导致材料破坏。     

Fatigue residual strength of circular laminate graphite–epoxy composite plates damaged by transverse load

The research dealt with the relation between damage and tension–tension fatigue residual strength (FRS) in a quasi-isotropic carbon fibre reinforced epoxy resin laminate. The work was organized in two phases: during the first one, composite laminates were damaged by means of an out-of-plane quasi-static load that was supposed to simulate a low velocity impact; in the second phase, fatigue tests were performed on damaged and undamaged specimens obtained from the original composite laminates. During the quasi-static transverse loading phase, damage progression was monitored by means of acoustic emission (AE) technique. The measurement of the strain energy accumulated in the specimens and of the acoustic energy released by fracture events made it possible to estimate the amount of induced damage and evaluate the quasi-static residual tensile strength of the specimens. A probabilistic failure analysis of the fatigue data, reduced by the relative residual strength values, made it possible to relate the FRS of damaged specimens with the fatigue strength of undamaged ones.     

Impact and subsequent fatigue damage growth in carbon fibre laminates

The influence of the ply stacking sequence on the impact resistance and subsequent O-tension fatigue performance of carbon fibre laminates has been investigated. Drop-weight impact tests were conducted on a range of 16 ply carbon fibre laminates with either all non-woven plies or mixtures of woven and non-woven plies. Damaged coupons were tested in O-tension fatigue for up to 10⁶ cycles, scanned using an ultrasonic probe and then loaded in tension until failure.The impact resistance and subsequent fatigue performance have been found to be sensitive to the ply stacking sequence. The non-woven composites showed a marked sensitivity to impact loading, but increases in residual static strength were noted after cycling. The inclusion of a woven fabric served to improve the impact resistance of the laminates. Fatigue cycling resulted in considerably improved residual static strengths; by 10⁶ cycles any effect of the impact damage had been removed.     

双斜接修补复合材料层合板的拉伸行为及影响因素双斜接修补复合材料层合板的拉伸行为及影响因素

基于试验和有限元数值方法对双斜接修补碳纤维增强聚合物（CFRP）复合材料层合板在拉伸载荷作用下的力学行为开展研究。通过试验分析了两种不同厚度的双斜接修补复合材料结构的承载能力和失效形式。结果表明,对于不同厚度的双斜接修补复合材料结构,失效强度接近,主要破坏形式均以胶层内聚破坏为主,伴随局部的90°基体开裂。利用连续介质损伤力学模型和内聚力模型分别对复合材料和胶层失效进行描述,通过数值方法开展双斜接修补结构的强度预测和损伤演化分析。数值结果与试验吻合较好,并且指出复合材料基体开裂起始早于胶层失效。通过有限元模型讨论了附加层、双斜接内部尖端所处位置和修补胶层参数对修补性能的影响。      

Compression fatigue failure of CFRP laminates with impact damage

The objective of this study is to investigate failure mechanisms of impact-damaged CFRP laminates subjected to compression fatigue. Two kinds of composite materials, UT500/Epoxy and AS4/PEEK, were used to examine the dependence of failure behavior on the material properties such as interlaminar toughness. Impact-induced delaminations in the UT500/Epoxy specimen were considerably larger than those in the AS4/PEEK specimen. The S–N curves for the UT500/Epoxy specimens with impact damage exhibited a similar tendency to those without impact. The impact-induced delamination in the UT500/Epoxy specimen grew widthwise to the free edge on the rear side of the specimen during the fatigue test. On the other hand, the AS4/PEEK specimens without impact exhibited a more steeply declining S–N curve than those with impact damage. The delaminations in the impacted AS4/PEEK specimen did not reach the free edge before the fatigue fracture.     

三维四向编织碳纤维/环氧树脂复合材料在热环境中的拉压力学性能实验

针对不同编织角度的三维四向编织碳纤维/环氧树脂复合材料,进行了热环境下的轴向拉伸和压缩力学性能实验研究,讨论了温度对三维四向编织复合材料的轴向拉伸和压缩力学性能的影响,并根据宏观断裂形貌和SEM图像分析了材料的破坏和断裂机制。结果表明,随着测试温度的升高,三维四向编织碳纤维/环氧树脂复合材料的纵向拉伸强度有小幅提高,而纵向压缩强度显著降低。在室温条件下,编织角对材料的纵向拉伸破坏特征没有影响,而对材料的纵向压缩破坏特征有较大影响。随着测试温度的升高,不同编织角度复合材料的纵向拉伸和压缩的损伤破坏形态均与室温条件下明显不同。      

碳纤维复合材料假脚工艺参数对其冲击后疲劳性能的影响

基于三维逐渐损伤理论和有限元法,对碳纤维复合材料假脚的冲击及冲击后疲劳破坏过程进行分析,研究了不同的复合材料体系、几何尺寸、纤维铺设方式等工艺参数对碳纤维假脚的冲击损伤及疲劳性能的影响规律。结果表明,在冲击载荷作用下,碳纤维复合材料假脚的损伤模式主要为基体开裂、纤维压缩和分层;复合材料体系的横向和法向拉伸强度以及剪切强度等参数越小,假脚的冲击损伤面积越大,所能承受的疲劳循环次数越低;随着后龙骨厚度的增加,基体开裂损伤面积越来越大,分层损伤面积略有减小,而纤维压缩损伤几乎没有变化。尽管随着后龙骨厚度的增加,假脚的疲劳循环次数逐渐增大,但是相对于厚度的增加量,疲劳循环次数的增加量相对较小;不同铺层参数对碳纤维复合材料假脚的冲击损伤模式几乎没有影响。适度增加0°铺层的含量,可有效提高碳纤维复合材料假脚的疲劳性能。     

含材料非线性的热塑性聚乙烯自增强复合材料逐渐损伤分析

以分段线弹性方法考虑了单向复合材料纵向、横向与剪切的非线性特性,建立了静拉伸热塑性PE/PE层合板逐渐损伤模型,利用有限元技术模拟研究了UHMWPE/LDPE层合板逐渐损伤的过程及机理.研究表明,纵向非线性对层合板的拉伸力学行为非线性有显著影响;各向非线性的分段线弹性处理可简便有效地分析复合材料及其结构的非线性问题,结合逐渐损伤分析可清楚揭示基体开裂、纤一基剪切和纤维断裂等损伤模式及其进程.算例分析的理想结果验证了模型的有效性.     

Compression failure of carbon fibre-reinforced coupons containing central delaminations

As part of a study on the tolerance of carbon fibre-reinforced composites to impact, the effect of delaminations between the plies of laminates was investigated. Experiments were carried out on carbon fibre/PEEK and carbon fibre/epoxy coupons with artificially-introduced central delaminations to determine the effect on compressive strength. Delaminations in carbon fibre/epoxy grew prior to failure, those in carbon fibre/PEEK did not. A finite element method was developed to predict the strength reduction and delamination growth. It was found that the predictions matched experimental results, provided large displacement effects were included.     

单螺栓修复对含冲击损伤碳纤维/环氧树脂复合材料层合板压缩承载能力的影响

开展了单钉修复对含冲击损伤碳纤维/环氧树脂复合材料层合板压缩承载能力影响的试验研究。测试了三种不同能量冲击后碳纤维/环氧树脂复合材料层合板的压缩承载能力及失效模式,测定了单螺栓对碳纤维/环氧树脂复合材料层合板压缩承载能力的修复效率,并借助数字图像相关技术(DIC)表征手段揭示了单螺栓修复对含冲击损伤结构失效行为的影响。结果表明:冲击后碳纤维/环氧树脂复合材料层合板的压缩承载能力随着冲击能量的增加而降低,冲击损伤破坏了碳纤维/环氧树脂复合材料层合板结构的对称性,并导致结构在加载初期呈非对称的局部屈曲变形特征,局部屈曲诱发并加剧分层损伤扩展;单螺栓修复能有效恢复结构的整体对称性,在一定程度上抑制含冲击损伤碳纤维/环氧树脂复合材料层合板的局部屈曲,达到可观的修复效率。该研究为复合材料紧固件修理方案的制订及修理损伤容限的定义提供一定的指导意义。      

碳纤维增强树脂基复合材料组分疲劳强度表征

对微观力学失效（Micro-mechanics of failure,MMF）理论的应用做了扩展,将其用于分析连续纤维增强树脂基（FRP）复合材料的三维复杂结构的疲劳强度。基于MMF理论,建立了连续FRP复合材料层合板疲劳强度表征方法。分别对碳纤维/树脂（UTS50/E51）复合材料单向层合板进行静载和疲劳试验,得到层合板的基本力学性能和宏观强度指标;对UTS50/E51层合板组分疲劳强度进行了表征,得到了纤维和树脂的拉伸、压缩MMF疲劳特征参量S-lgN曲线,为MMF方法应用于连续纤维增强复合材料层合板结构的疲劳强度分析提供了判断依据。使用建立的方法对UTS50/E51多向层合板的拉伸疲劳强度进行了分析,并将预测结果与试验结果进行对比。