Fatigue behaviour of unidirectional carbon-cord reinforced composites and parametric models for life prediction

Abstract

© 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK. Unidirectional Carbon Cord reinforced HNBR composites (CF-HNBR) were prepared and fatigue tests under stress control were performed under non-relaxed tension-tension conditions. In this paper, various Constant Life Diagrams (CLD) that are based on different theoretical formulations have been applied to the measured fatigue data of the CF-HNBR composites. The results show that the predictions made by piecewise CLD and modified Harries CLD produce the most accurate results. In addition, a novel experimental set-up is described that replicates in a simplified way the real-pulley situation encountered under typical service conditions to investigate the effect of the bending curvature on the lifetime of the composite subject to coupled tension and bending conditions.