The effect of temperature on fatigue strength and damage of FRP composite laminates

Hossein Mivehchi, Ryerson University

Date of Award

2009

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Ahmad Varvani-Farahani

Abstract

The present study intends to investigate the effect of temperature on cumulative fatigue damage of laminated fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. The effect of temperature on fatigue damage is formulated based on a previously proposed residual stiffness fatigue damage model. The fatigue strength of FRP composite laminates is also formulated to have temperature dependent parameters. The research work is divided into three main parts; the first part reviews the fatigue damage mechanism is fibre-reinforced composites based on stiffness degradation. The recent residual stiffness of Varvani-Shirazi was used as the backbone structure of damage analysis in this thesis. This model is capable of damage assessment while the effects of maximum stress, stress ratio and fibre orientation of FRP composites were recognized. The Varvani-Shirazi damage model was further developed to assess fatigue damage of FRP composites at various temperatures (T). Inputs of the damage model are temperature dependent parameters including Young's modulus (E), ultimate tensile strength(ðult) and fatigue life (Nf). As the next part of the proposed analysis, the temperature dependency of each parameter is formulated, and the relations of E-T and ðult-T are substituted in the Varvani-Shirazi fatigue model. Finally, all terms and equations are evaluated with the experimental data available in the literature. Six sets fatigue data were used in this thesis to evaluate fatigue of FRP specimens. The predicted results were found to be in good agreement with the experimentally obtained data. The proposed fatigue damage model was found promising to predict the fatigue damage of unidirectional (UD) and women FRP composites at different temperatures. Temperature dependant parameters of Young's modulus, ultimate tensile strength, and S-N diagram were also found to be responsive when used of UD, cross-ply, and quasi-isotropic FRP laminates.