Abstract
Fatigue crack propagation (FCP) behaviour of polypropylene composites reinforced with short glass fibres has been investigated as a function of fibre content and frequency of the sinusoidal applied load. The FCP resistance of the composites was found to improve as the fibre weight fraction increased. Results for all composites showed a dramatic decrease in the crack growth rate per cycle as a result of increasing frequency, at any given crack length. A further analysis of the data indicated that crack propagation was governed by viscoelastic creep which produced, at the lower frequencies, a crack speed approximately independent of frequency. However, it was recognized that at the highest frequency hysteretic heating at the crack tip induced a higher crack speed, associated with non-isothermal creep processes.
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