On the fatigue behaviour of epoxy-based nanostructured composite materials

Abstract

Epoxy composites and nanocomposites enable the creation of high-performance structures and innovative designs. However, there is limited research focused on their fatigue characterization. The purpose of this study is to analyze the fatigue resistance results of nanostructured composite materials made with an epoxy matrix of Diglycidyl Ether of Bisphenol F and 9,9-bis(3-chloro-4-aminophenyl) fluorine (DGEBF-CAF) reinforced with 5%wt of elastomeric nanoparticles with an average diameter of 200 nm. The tests are conducted at variable load and frequency using Rotating Bending (R-B) and Tensile-Tensile (T-T) tests, and the results are compared to those obtained with pure resin. The occurrence of thermal fatigue phenomena during the tests is monitored using a thermal camera. The results confirm that pure epoxy resin exhibits poor crack propagation resistance due to its low ductility and toughness, and the introduction of a second phase leads to an improvement of approximately 3 times in T-T tests and 5 times in R-B tests.