International Journal of Fatigue 28 (2006) 261270 www.elsevier.

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Fatigue strength of carbon bre composites up to the gigacycle regime (gigacycle-composites)

Silvain A. Michela,*, Rolf Kieselbacha, Hans Jorg Martensb
a

Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA), Uberlandstrasse 129, 8600 Dubendorf, Switzerland b Sulzer Markets and Technology Ltd, Sulzer Innotec, P.O. Box, 8401 Winterthur, Switzerland Received 18 August 2003; received in revised form 7 May 2005; accepted 18 May 2005 Available online 21 July 2005

Abstract Knowledge of the fatigue strength is necessary for design purposes also at very high numbers of load cycles. While static properties and fatigue strength curves in the low, medium and high cycle fatigue regime1 are well investigated, only few data beyond 5!106 cycles (gigacycle fatigue regime) are available. In a rst part of this paper, the fatigue strength for various laminates of a carbon bre reinforced thermoplastic material (AS4/APC-2) was investigated experimentally up to 109 cycles. The specimen shape was optimised for tensile, compression and bending load cases to get signicant fatigue data. Various candidates of fatigue damage indicators have been evaluated and monitored continuously during these fatigue tests. A general trend of the fatigue strength reduction could be observed for the majority of laminates and loading conditions beyond 5!106 load cycles. A fatigue limit (endurance limit) was not found. Signicant changes of the stiffness, resonance frequency and temperature could be measured. However, a correlation between these signals and the nal failure of the specimen could not be found. In a second part, a fatigue design procedure was developed, which allows predicting the fatigue life of a typical structural detail under bending loads. Various failure criteria used in the static mode have been extended to fatigue loads. In a verication test program, the fatigue strength of a waisted beam has been assessed for bending loads and compared with the predicted fatigue life. q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Polymer matrix composites; SN curves; High cycle fatigue; Fatigue limit; Fatigue design

1. Introduction The material AS4/APC-2 (or AS4/PEEK), which was used in this research, is a carbon bre reinforced thermoplastic material and a candidate for various applications in aerospace and other industries. The presented project started with a literature research in 1998 when over 125 papers were found based on key words related to the subject. For fatigue of continuous-bre thermoplastic composite, such as AS4/APC-2 Moore has given an overview see [1]. A classication of fatigue failure mechanism is given:

(1) Interlaminar fracture (delamination)a crack propagation process in the matrix between the plies of the laminate. (2) Intralaminar fracture (matrix cracking)a crack propagation process in the matrix between the bres. (3) Translaminar fracturea crack propagation process where bres are broken. (4) Debonding fracturea failure process which strips the bre of its interface material. In complex layer composite, such as orthotropic (OT) and quasi-isotropic (QI) laminates different mechanisms have been seen to be active. For example, in tensiontension fatigue of orthotropic laminates, fatigue process is rst an intralaminar fracture, followed by delamination. In the later stage, the fatigue process is dominated by delamination. Final failure is accompanied by some bre braking and longitudinal splitting, [1]. The static and the fatigue strength of this material up to 106 cycles has been studied and reported by various laboratories [211]. In [2] and [3], the inuence of the ply

* Corresponding author. Tel.: C41 1 823 45 88; fax: C41 1 823 40 11. E-mail address: silvain.michel@empa.ch (S.A. Michel). 1 Denitions of the different fatigue regimes are here used as follows: low cycle, 1K5!104; medium cycle, 5!1045!106; high cycle, 5!1065! 107; gigacycle, 5!1071!109; run out, 1!109.

0142-1123/$ - see front matter q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2005.05.005

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angle on the fatigue strength in UD laminates was studied and compared to a cross-ply and a quasi-isotropic laminate. The scatter in fatigue strength data has been determined experimentally and modelled with a Weibull distribution function [4,5]. Only a few of results on studies are available about any fatigue indicators, such as stiffness reduction or temperature rise. The inuence of test frequency and temperature has been studied as well [68]. However, fatigue strength data for load cycles beyond 5!106 are not available. The reason may be that such tests are very timeconsuming. Stress and strength analysis for laminates have been studied for many years. However, there are still open questions especially concerning the appropriate failure criteria [12]. Early developed failure criteria, for static load cases [1315] have been established in industrial applications, while basic research has developed further failure criteria on a proper physical basis. Puck, for example, has given a variety of failure criteria based on micromechanical failure scenarios [12]. For repeated loads similar failure criteria are needed and have been developed, see for example [17]. For simple load cases, the appropriate parameter to characterise the fatigue strength is assumed to be the maximum stress (or load) of the fatigue cycle. The structural strength typically drops linearly with the logarithm of the number of fatigue cycles. For combined load cases (for example, tension and shear stresses) fatigue failure criteria are needed similar to the static failure criteria. It is, however, so far not clear, whether the failure criteria which are well established for static loading of composites are applicable as well for fatigue loads, especially in the ultra-high cycle regime. In the rst part of the present work, fatigue tests have been performed to obtain fatigue data for various types of loading, e.g. tension, compression and three-point-bending for unidirectional (UD), orthotropic (OT) and quasiisotropic (QI) laminates. The dimensions of the specimens were varied in thickness, width and length for nding an acceptable compromise between fullments of specications, available test machines and testing time. The practical limits were: buckling of compression loaded specimens, self-heating of the material at high test frequencies and a limited force of the servo hydraulic test machine for UD tension low cycle fatigue tests. The buckling problem was eliminated by reducing the length of the compression specimens below the rst free length of an Euler buckling mode. No mechanical support preventing buckling of long specimens was used as to avoid the risk of fretting between support and test specimen. A major concern was the test frequency. Carlile et al. [6] as well as Curtis et al. [7] have identied the test frequency and the temperature as important parameters, capable to reduce the fatigue strength of AS-4/APC-2 laminates. Xiao and Hmouz [8] have concluded, that increasing the test frequency could lead to a signicant temperature rise, drastically reducing the fatigue strength. In several pre-tests, the self-heating effect

in UD, OT and QI laminates was investigated theoretically and experimentally. It was found that with a forced air ow the surface temperature could be limited to 40 8C instead of temperature beyond 90 8C without air ow. The limit of 40 8C was considered to be an acceptable temperature compared to the glass temperature of the PEEK matrix, i.e. 143 8C. A critical temperature between 30 and 60 8C was also observed by Xiao et al. [8]. Various parameters, such as stiffness, resonance frequency, and temperature have been measured during these tests. The idea was to nd out which of these parameters could serve as a potential damage indicator. From an engineering point of view the stiffness is an important parameter of a machine element in service. While stiffness reduction due to cracking is a well known parameter characterising fatigue damage in metals, such a correlation could so far not been found in composites. For example, Picasso et al. [911] have measured the stiffness during fatigue tests and found stiffness reductions of approx. 5% at higher fatigue cycles. But they could not nd any correlation between stiffness reduction and fatigue cycles to failure. With the data collected we could clearly see that the fatigue strength of the material can decrease even beyond 106 cycles. In UD tension and in bending, delaminations in the waist of the specimen, where the laminate layers reach the free surface, cause a signicant drop in stiffness. In the second part of the work, a fatigue design procedure for structures built-up with UD, OT and/or QI laminated elements has been developed and veried for an OT laminate in bending. For designing cyclically loaded structural components, the prediction of the fatigue strength under combined loading (tension, and/or bending and/or shear), based on a failure criterion is needed. Various criteria for static failure are well known, [1217]. Four criteria have been investigated in detail: the normal stress to compression strength ratio, the shear stress to shear strength ratio, the damage index given by Hashin [17], and a modied von-Mises criterion. A waisted beam loaded in bending was designed and analysed to investigate these four failure criteria. Static and fatigue tests have been performed and the predicted fatigue strength based on two of the investigated criteria could be validated experimentally. Both the normal stress to compression strength ratio and the damage index of Hashin predicted the failure location correctly. The maximum shear-to-shear strength ratio and the modied von-Mises criterion predicted failure at a different location than was found in the experiments.

2. Evaluation of the material strength up to 109 cycles 2.1. Materials and methods The AS4/APC-2 material system from Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) Fiberite Company was used in this work. The prepreg material has been consolidated 30 min at

S.A. Michel et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 28 (2006) 261270 Table 1 Dimensions of the tension and compression test specimen L (mm) UD tension OT tension OT tension UD compression UD compression UD compression OT compression OT compression OT compression st-gc st-mc gc st-lc st, hcgc st, gc st st-gc gc 140 140 25 10 15 25 15 15 25 B (mm) 15 25 25 10 10 10 25 25 25 T (mm) 1 2 2 2 2 25 2 2 2 L0 (mm) 56 56 50 50 50 50 50 50 50

263

T0 (mm) 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

Fig. 1. Test specimen for tension and compression tests.

a pressure of 6 bar and 396 8C and 20 min at 125 bar cold. The consolidated layer thickness was 132 mm. Three laminates have been studied: a unidirectional laminate, [0]8 or [0]16, an orthotropic laminate [K45/0/C45/0]2s or [K45/0/C45/0] 8s, and a quasi-isotropic laminate [K45/0/C45/90]8s. The nal thickness of the plates was 1 mm (UD), 2 mm or 11.2 mm (OT) and 11.2 mm (QI). A QI specimen was micro graphically inspected. A homogenous distribution of the bres with 58.7 (vol.%) (60 expected) of bres and a density of 1.596 (g cmK3) (1.60 expected) was found. The test specimens were cut out from a single plate using water jet. Three different types of specimens were used: tension, compression and bending specimens. The shapes of the specimens are shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The dimensions are given in Table 1. Tabs were made from the same material and bonded symmetrically on both ends of the tension and compression specimens for improving the load introduction. Tension as well as compression (static and fatigue) tests were performed following ASTM recommendations (D3410, D3039 and D3479). The UD-tension fatigue tests were carried out with 1 mm thick specimens instead of 2 mm as recommended by the ASTM Standard D 3039. The length of the compression test specimen was reduced to prevent buckling. No buckling guides were used. Static, low and medium cycle fatigue tests have been performed on servo hydraulic test machines. High cycle and gigacycle fatigue tests have been performed on electromechanical resonance machines. The specimens were carefully oriented in the loading direction and xed by mechanical or hydraulic clamps. A rst cycle on each specimen was applied quasi-statically for calibration reasons. During this initial cycle, the elongation of the specimen was carefully measured with a video extensometer. During the subsequent fatigue cycling, an inductive displacement sensor was monitoring the displacement of the moving clamp. The tests

st, static; lc, low cycle; mc, medium cycle; hc, high cycle; gc, gigacycle.

were performed load controlled with a sinusoidal load history (R-ratioZ0.1). The test frequency for low and medium cycle fatigue tests was between 0.5 and 10 Hz, for high cycle and gigacycle fatigue test it varied between 57 and 158 Hz, depending on the specimen dimensions. During all tests an infrared sensor has monitored the surface temperature. All tests have been performed in controlled environmental conditions (23 8C, 70% R.H.) and when necessary the specimen was cooled with airow. A PCbased monitoring system (Labview) allowed collecting data of the loading amplitude, the displacement amplitude and the surface temperature periodically without interruption of the test. The stiffness of the specimen was calculated as the ratio of the load and the displacement amplitude. The bending specimens were used in a three-point bending test set-up. Loads were applied with a servo hydraulic actuator. The shape of the bending specimen allowed loading in two different modes: loading in the laminate planes, or loading perpendicular to it. Both loading modes were studied. The tests were performed load controlled with a sinusoidal load history (R-ratioZ0.1). The test frequency for low and medium cycle fatigue tests was between 0.5 and 10 Hz, for high and gigacycle fatigue test it was 50 Hz. The deformation of the symmetrically located support was measured with a laser displacement sensor. A thermo graphical camera was installed during some tests for measuring the temperature distribution on the surfaces. No cooling system was used. The number of valid static and fatigue tests for each type of laminate and loading are given in Table 2. The expected
Table 2 Number of valid static and fatigue tests for each type of laminate and loading st UD tension OT tension UD compression OT compression OT bending QI bending 5 6 6 6 3 4 lc and mc 27 19 1 12 4 5 hc 6 7 0 1 1 4 gc 6 3 8 5 2 1

Fig. 2. Test specimen for bending tests.

st, static; lc, low cycle; mc, medium cycle; hc, high cycle; gc, gigacycle.

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Table 3 Static properties for various composite laminates Ex (GPa) UD OT QI 138.0 79.8 54.1 Ey (GPa) 10.2 23.8 54.1 Gxy (GPa) 5.7 20.7 20.7 nxy () 0.30 0.66 0.30 ax (10K6 8CK1) 0.28 0.011 2.8 ay (MPa) 30.0 9.6 2.8 Xt (MPa) 2068 1146 728a Xc (MPa) K1206 K651 K473 Yt (MPa) 86 Yc (MPa) 200 txy 188

Data for UD laminate are given by the manufacturer; data for OT- and QI-laminates are predicted based on classical laminate theory (TsaiHill failure criterion for strength data). a Denotes failure of the 908 ply at 410 (MPa).

static properties are given in Table 3. For the UD laminate, the expected values are those given by the manufacturer of the prepreg. The expected values for the orthotropic laminate were calculated with the classical laminate theory using the strength data of the manufacturer for the single layers. In Table 4, the measured static tension and compression strength of UD and OT laminates are compared to the expected values. From this table it can be concluded that the measured strength data for the UD laminate are signicantly lower than expected. A visual inspection of the specimens showed that the specimens were not cut exactly in the bre direction, but with an inclination angle of approximately 48. With the classical laminate theory it could be shown that the expected reduction of the strength caused by this misalignment is in the order of what has been seen in the experiment. The tension and compression strength for the OT laminate is in the expected range. Load, deformation, and temperature were measured continuously during the fatigue tests. Two typical loadversus-displacement plots of low cycle tension fatigue tests are shown in Fig. 3 (UD laminate) and Fig. 4 (OT laminate). In Fig. 3, it can be seen how the stiffness of the specimen is reduced step-by-step as the test progresses. The specimen suffered from delaminations starting at the free ends. At the end of the test the whole cross-section of the specimen was split in many parts, see Fig. 5. For the OT laminates the development of the stiffness was different, see Fig. 4. During the initial cycle typically a signicant hysteresis was observed. Based on the comparison of the optically and the inductively measured deformation, we could ascribe this behaviour to the non-reversible movement of the specimen in the clamps of the machine. After the rst cycle the loadversus-deformation plots no longer showed signicant changes up to nal failure of the specimen. In Figs. 6 and 7, the development of the stiffness (load per displacement) of the bending specimens is shown.
Table 4 Static tension and compression strength: results of static tests and theoretically expected values Measured strength (MPa) UD tension OT tension UD compression OT compression 1614G335 1170G78 K585G78 K719G69 Expected strength (MPa) 2068 1146 K1206 K651

It can be seen from both examples that after several thousands of fatigue cycles the stiffness dropped signicantly and then remained stable until the nal failure. The reduction in stiffness was clearly caused by delaminations.

Fig. 3. Typical load versus displacement plot of a UD tension test.

Fig. 4. Typical load versus displacement plot of an OT tension test.

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Fig. 5. Delaminations in an UD tension specimen.

However, no correlation between nal failure and the number of fatigue cycles up to the moment when the delaminations appeared was found. An example of a broken bending specimen is shown in Fig. 8. As can be seen in Fig. 7 also the amount of stiffness reduction did not correlate with the number of cycles to failure. As for the tension and compression tests, no measurable change of the stiffness prior to nal failure was observed. Some of the tests showed no failure and the tests were stopped at 109 cycles. While a typical stiffness reduction of approximately 10% was observed in these tests, temperature and test frequency did not change. In Figs. 9 and 10, the fatigue data of the UD tests (tension and compression), and the OT-tests (tension and compression) are shown in a classical SN-diagram. In Fig. 11, all the data from the static and fatigue tests are summarised. The diagram shows the maximum stresses in the fatigue cycle, normalised with the static strength. Three classes of normalised SN-curves can be identied: 1. the SN-curve for all the tension and bending tests and gigacycle fatigue tests of the OT laminates under compression, 2. the curve for low and medium cycle fatigue tests of OT laminates under compression and

3. the curve for compression fatigue tests for UD laminates. A log-linear strength reduction was observed for the majority of laminates and loading combinations. The strength of the UD laminate under compression is independent of the load cycles. The compression strength of OT laminates decreases linearly with log (N) up to 5!106 cycles. At this point the strength drops to the level of the general trend line, as established with tension and bending tests.

3. Fatigue design procedure for structural components 3.1. Static and fatigue failure criteria Based on various static failure criteria, such as those of Hoffmann [12], TsaiWu [13], and TsaiHill [14,15] and similar to the fatigue failure criteria given by Hashin [17] the following fatigue failure criteria have been investigated s1 Xc

index Z

(1)

Fig. 6. Typical development of the stiffness in OT bending tests.

Fig. 7. Typical development of the stiffness in QI bending tests.

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Fig. 8. Delaminations in a bending specimen.

s  2   s1 t 2 index Z C 12 Xc S t12 S

(2)

3.2. Design and static analysis of the waisted beam in bending The four failure criteria have been investigated experimentally for a waisted beam loaded in bending, see Fig. 12. The specimens were manufactured from a 4 mm thick OT laminate manufactured in the same way as the specimens used in the material strength evaluation. The shape of the beam was designed such that the bending normal stresses (tension and compression) were constant in a large range of the longitudinal coordinate. On the other hand the shear stresses increased continuously due to the waisted cross-area. This specically chosen geometry of the specimen allowed gaining information about the validity of the four failure criteria by analysing the failure location. It was expected that for static and for fatigue loads the failure location would appear at different locations along the longitudinal axis. Such a difference in the failure location would directly indicate a difference in the failure criteria. The distributions of the four failure indexes are given for a loading force of 2000 N in Fig. 13.

index Z

(3)

s  2  t 2 s1 index Z C 3 12 Xc S

(4)

where s1 is the maximum compression stress, t12 is the maximum shear stress, Xc is the maximum compression strength, and S is the maximum shear strength in a component. In case of a single monotonically increasing static load the strength parameter from static tests are used. In case of repeated fatigue loads (with R-ratio of 0.1) the peak-value of a fatigue cycle is normalised with the strength parameter given in the SN-curve. Static or fatigue failure occurs when the index equals unity. In case of fatigue loads the linear damage accumulation rule is assumed to be valid.

Fig. 9. Fatigue data of the UD-tests compared with data from Ref. [3].

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1400
MaCha,R=0.1,f=10Hz, OT, T-T

267

1200

OT - tension OT - compression

Maximum Stress [MPa]

1000

Regression for OT - tension Regression for OT - compression

800

600

400

y = -40.583Ln(x) + 1211.5 2 R = 0.9426

200

y = -20.331Ln(x) + 765 2 R = 0.7422

1.E+01 1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04 1.E+05 Cycles to Failure [-] 1.E+06 1.E+07 1.E+08 1.E+09

0 1.E+00

Fig. 10. Fatigue data of the OT-tests compared with data from Ref. [4].

Fig. 11. Summary of the fatigue strength data of AS-4/APC-2 for various laminates and loading conditions.

The static analysis based on the experimentally determined material strength predicted static failure at a load between 3650 and 3800 N. The expected failure mode was a compression failure in the compression-loaded ply at the free surface. The failure location was expected to be located between xZ14 and 44 mm. 3.3. Experimental set-up and results of the bending test The bending tests were carried out on a rigid test bed. The beam was xed in an aluminium support with the help
Fig. 12. Geometry, loading and boundary conditions of the waisted beam in bending.

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1.0 0.9 0.8

S.A. Michel et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 28 (2006) 261270

normal stress/compression strength shear stress/shear strength Maximum damage index

relative load factor [ - ]

0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 0 5 10

Maximum mod. Mises index

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

distance x [mm]

Fig. 13. Distribution of the relative load factors calculated for a load of 2000 N.

of a cold-curing resin based on methylmethacrylate (Technovit 3040). This resulted in an inelastic close form t. The loading force was applied with the help of an aluminium plate 74 mm away from the free end. The static and fatigue loads were generated with a servo hydraulic cylinder (maximum force 8 kN) connected to a PC controlled, close loop control system (Labtronic 8800). The static loads were applied with a displacementcontrolled ramp of 0.01 mm/s. The load was measured with a calibrated load cell. Fatigue loads were applied as a sinusoidal wave, with an R-ratio of 0.1 and a test frequency of 10 Hz. The surface temperature was measured on the surface in the middle of the bending specimen with an infrared sensor. Surface temperature, displacement and force were continuously monitored during the fatigue test. The average static strength measured was 3140G125 N, which is between 82 and 86% of the predicted strength. Maximum deection of the beam at the load introducing point was 8.7 mm. The average stiffness resulted, therefore, to 350 N/mm. The fatigue strength was determined for up to 108 cycles. The strength decreased linearly with log (N). All the failure locations were between xZ20 and 35 mm, independent of the number of fatigue cycles. In all the tests the surface temperature increased linearly with time (i.e. fatigue cycles) and reached 45 8C for the low cycle fatigue tests at the end of the test. This maximum surface temperature was, therefore, not signicantly above the chosen temperature limit of 40 8C as described in the rst part of this text. The fatigue strength is given as a function of cycles to failure in Fig. 12.

4. Discussion The focuses of this work were: 1. Evaluation of the material strength up to 109 cycles. 2. Study of various parameters as fatigue damage indicators. 3. Development and verication of a fatigue design procedure for structural components.

4.1. Material strength up to 109 cycles The fatigue strength of various laminates made from AS-4/APC 2 in tension, compression and bending loading conditions has been determined from quasi static loading up to 109 fatigue cycles. In the authors opinion it is the rst time that fatigue data have been generated up to 109 cycles in a composite material. The material strength for the majority of the laminates and load combinations was found to decrease according to a log-linear law. The equation is log S Z k K m log N (5)

where S is the maximum stress normalized with the static strength and N the number of cycles to failure. The parameter m is the fatigue strength degradation exponent. The presentation of the fatigue data in a normalized format has been found to be the simplest and most clear way of summarising all the data. The static strength data are given in Table 3. Therewith a classical SN curve for each laminate and loading combination can easily be constructed.

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It is interesting to see that by using this normalized format the strength reduction of a component is in the all laminates and loading combinations the same. The trend seen between 1 and 106 cycles continues up to 109 cycles. No fatigue limit was observed in this range. The parameter m is 0.0454, which is between 0.0446 and 0.0503 found by [2] for UD laminates with RZ0.0 and 0.2, respectively. The data for the OT laminate in tension between NZ100 and 106 are in the same range as the data reported by Ma et al. [4]. So independent of the underlying fatigue physics, the engineer must expect the same strength reduction by the fatigue process. Two exceptions of this general trend were found: the OT laminate and the UD both under compression. While the OT laminate under compression shows a higher fatigue strength between 1 and 5!107 cycles (mZ0.0138) compared to the general trend, the UD laminate under compression shows no strength reduction at all with increasing number of fatigue cycles (mZ0) up to 108 cycles. The compression strength for static and low cycle fatigue found in our study is signicantly lower than reported in [2]. A possible explanation of the rst anomaly is the difference in test frequency. While the fatigue tests up to 107 cycles were performed with a frequency of no more than 10 Hz, the fatigue tests beyond 107 cycles were performed with a frequency up to 158 Hz (in this case the temperature reached 41 8C). A frequency of 158 Hz was only used for thin specimens (1 or 2 mm thick). The thick specimens were tested only in bending and with a test frequency of 10 Hz maximum. To reach the goal of getting fatigue data beyond 106 cycles it was obligatory to use resonance machines. The second restriction was the buckling problem when tests were made in compression. Therefore, the only choice was to use short specimens, which resulted in a high resonance frequency. Therefore, it can be concluded that the fatigue strength of OT laminates under compression is sensitive to

the test frequency. The results of the strength of the UD laminate under compression can be interpreted as an instability failure mechanism. If buckling of the bres in the matrix controls the compressive strength of UD laminates, it can be expected that the number of load excursions (i.e. fatigue cycles) is not inuencing the strength until at very high numbers of cycles, the structure fails by local buckling. 4.2. Monitoring of various potential fatigue indicators Stiffness, resonance frequency and temperature rise have been evaluated as potential indicators of the fatigue damage. While the changes of the resonance frequency were not signicant, the development of the stiffness and the temperature showed small changes as also found by Picasso and Priolo [9,10]. However, a correlation between these changes and the event of the nal failure could not be found. A similar conclusion has been drawn by Picasso et al. in [11]. The nal failure happens spontaneously and quasi brittle. One of the major results of this part of the project is that stiffness reduction, temperature increase or change of the resonance frequency was systematically monitored during all fatigue tests and where not able to serve as fatigue damage indicators. 4.3. Fatigue design procedure and verication with a waisted beam in bending The design approach using four different failure criteria has been veried with an OT laminated beam in bending. The comparison between experimental and predicted fatigue strength is performed on the most critical crosssection and at the most critical element in this section as illustrated in Fig. 13. The critical cross-section is not for all failure criteria the same. This can be seen also in Fig. 13,

Fig. 14. Comparison of predicted versus experimentally determined fatigue strength of the waisted beam in bending.

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where some of the relative load factors have a maximum between distance 15 and 40, and other have a maximum near 57 mm. The correlation of the overall failure was not the only step in the design procedure. As described earlier the rst step was to nd an optimum shape of the beam. The optimum would be a uniform distribution of the stresses or more precisely a constant relative load factor in the component. This dimensioning was found based on the maximum damage index by the shape illustrated in Fig. 13. This dimensioning takes into account the local stresses in compression (which are more critical than the tension stresses) and the shear stresses (which are highest in the symmetry plane of the beam) and all combinations known as static failure criteria see Eqs. (1)(4). The boundary conditions in the test of the waisted beam were carefully chosen, such that no failure occurred at these locations. This was veried by the static and fatigue tests. The waisted form of the specimen allowed a correlation between the failure location and the failure criteria. The failure location found in all the tests was independent from the number of fatigue cycles. This gives an indication that for all regimes, e.g. static, low, medium, and high and gigacycle fatigue the damage mechanism is the same. The failure location is best predicted with the normal stress/compression strength and the damage index given in Eqs. (1) and (2). The fatigue strength of the waisted beam in bending was found to decrease also according to a log-linear law. The equation is log F Z k K m log N (6)

Acknowledgements The nancial founding of this work by the Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) of the Swiss Federal Ofce for Professional Education and Technology (OPET) is gratefully acknowledged.

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where F is the maximum bending load and N is the number of cycles to failure. The parameter m is the fatigue strength degradation exponent. The parameter m given by a regression analysis is 0.0387, which is slightly lower than the degradation exponent found for the laminates in pure tension or three-point bending (mZ0.0454). In Fig. 14, a comparison of the predicted fatigue strength of the waisted beam and the experimentally determined fatigue strength is shown. The prediction has been calibrated with the static strength results. The prediction of the degradation has been based on the degradation exponent of 0.0454, determined in the rst part of the work. The difference between the predicted and the experimentally determined fatigue strength is not signicant and, therefore, the fatigue approach could be veried for an OT laminated waisted beam in bending.