Abstract
The behaviour of chopped strand mat glass fibre-reinforced polyester resin under tensile fatigue loading in air was compared to that in aqueous acidic environments. Marked differences were observed in life-to-fracture in the environment which approximated to the predicted life to the onset of macro cracking. The resulting fracture surfaces were also quite different to fracture surfaces in air and showed a marked absence of fibre pull-out and delamination. These results are discussed in terms of relatively rapid crack propagation by environmental stress failure of the reinforcing fibres following the rate determining crack initiation by pure mechanically applied alternating stress.
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