FATIGUE TESTING OF PULTRUDED COMPOSITE MATERIALS

Fiber reinforced composite materials are finding their way into an increasing number of applications due to their attractive performance characteristics such as high strength-to-weight ratio, high stiffness-to-weight ratio, superior fatigue properties and high corrosion resistance. Although there is a wealth of literature on the fatigue properties of traditional materials, the fatigue properties of composite materials have not been widely studied nor well understood. This is due, in part, to the numerous difficulties associated with the fatigue testing of composite materials. This paper investigates some of the fatigue testing problems on pultruded composite materials. Example material used was graphite-epoxy.