Abstract
A study was conducted to determine the flexural fatigue performance characteristics and fatigue life limitations of fibreglass-reinforced polymers. It was found that the bending fatigue failure mode of unidirectional fibreglass composites changes from shear failure to flexural failure passing a combined failure region as the L/h (support span length to specimen thickness ratio) value increases. While the fibreglass failure determines the fatigue resistance in the flexural failure mode, the matrix shear cracking was found to be the life-limiting mechanism in the shear failure mode. The measurement of changes in stiffness and hysteresis loop energy during the fatigue cycling, and the investigation of microstructural changes were employed for determining the fatigue failure mechanisms. The fatigue endurance of fibreglass composites was found to be significantly affected by cyclic frequency and test control mode.
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