Fatigue behavior of 2.5D woven composites based on the first-order bending vibration tests

Abstract

The 2.5D woven composite material has good resistance to delamination and impact load. However, its fatigue behavior is lack of investigation. In this work, first-order bending vibration fatigue tests were conducted on cantilever beam specimens made of 2.5D woven composites under different nominal stress levels. Test results showed that rapid damage evolution and accumulation occurred in the woven composites under a high stress level. However, under a low stress level, crack growth showed arrest behavior. The square root of residual stiffness showed a linear relation with resonance frequency, so the normalized full-time domain curves can be used to characterize the residual stiffness. On that basis, a residual stiffness model for the studied vibration fatigue specimens under other stress levels was proposed. Besides, a formula of ɛ-N curve was established for guiding the design and analysis of the 2.5D woven composite. To further reveal the failure mechanism, a multi-scale model of the woven composite was proposed. Numerical results showed that the high interlaminar shear stress between the yarn and the matrix near the compressed surface of the specimen caused material damage. This was consistent with the observed fracture topography, which verified the applicability of the multi-scale model.