High cycle fatigue prediction of glass fiber-reinforced epoxy composites: reliability study

The aim of this paper is to develop a probabilistic approach of high cycle fatigue (HCF) prediction of glass fiber-reinforced epoxy composites by taking into account the modifications induced by the variation of the loading parameters (stress and number of cycles) and those of the material parameters (fiber Young’s modulus and fiber volume fraction). Using fatigue curve analytical expression and Monte Carlo simulation assessment, probabilistic Wöhler curves are plotted to predict the high cycle fatigue behavior of the material. In this regard, four cases are studied by varying the hypothesis for the stress and number of cycle values to be probabilistic or deterministic. The design of experiment (DoE) techniques are used in this work by varying the factors of interest in a full factorial design to evaluate the effect and the interaction of some factors influencing the fatigue reliability. The controlled input factors of the process are traduced by (i) the materials’ parameters represented by the variation of fiber and matrix Young’s moduli ( E f and E m ) and the fiber volume fraction ( V f ) and either traduced by (ii) the loading parameters represented by the applied stress and number of cycles.