Fatigue behaviour of carbon fibre reinforced plastic under spectrum loading

In the present investigation the fatigue behaviour of carbon fibre reinforced plastic laminates under realistic service loading conditions has been examined, Laminates with different lay-up sequences have been tested for fatigue under spectrum loading with three different peak load levels. The damage in the laminates was characterized by using ultrasonic C-Scan as well as dynamic mechanical analysis and the damage mechanism was analyzed using scanning electron microscope. A similar investigation was also conducted on laminates with a hole. The results indicate that the spectrum loading did affect the modulus and fibre/matrix interfacial properties of all type of laminates investigated and also caused delamination in the laminate with a hole due to stress concentration around the hole. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.