Study on the ratchetting behavior of glass fiber-reinforced epoxy composites: Experiment and theory

To discuss the ratchetting behavior of short glass fiber-reinforced epoxy polymer composites, experimental and theoretical studies were carried out. The effects of the fiber content and peak stress on the ratchetting behavior of the composite materials were discussed. The results show that the ratchetting strain decreases with increasing fiber content and decreasing peak stress. It was also found that the residual strain after unloading partly recovers with time, which indicates that the ratchetting strain consists of viscoelastic strain and plastic strain. Based on the experimental results, a viscoelastic-viscoplastic constitutive model is proposed, which can well simulate the ratchetting behavior and strain recovery of composites with different fiber contents. •Ratchetting behavior of short glass fiber-reinforced epoxy polymer composites was discussed.•A viscoelastic-viscoplastic constitutive model was proposed to describe the ratchetting behavior of the composites.•The effect of mass fractions on the ratchetting behavior of glass fibre-reinforced polymers is discussed in detail.