The hygrothermal effect on the fatigue behavior of carbon fiber/ peek laminate composites (I)

Abstract

The hygrothermal effects on the fatigue behavior of the Carbon/PEEK laminated composites before and after impact damage were examined in this study. The [0/45/90/-45]2s AS-4/PEEK laminated composites were immersed in 80°C hot water for 45, 90 and 200 days,and subjected to falling weight impact with an energy of 8.58 J and then immersed in 80°C hot water for 45 days. It was found that the tensile strength of AS-4/PEEK laminated composites decreased with the increase of exposure period. The injured AS-4/PEEK composites were subjected to a static load and a tensiontension fatigue load at various levels of stress amplitudes. The effect of stress amplitude on the fatigue life was studied. The experimental fatigue life under different stress amplitude tests were estimated by the median rank order statistic cumulative distribution function. Then,the fitting curves for estimated data were analyzed by the Weibull distribution function. The S-N curves for a series of cyclic loads at various survival probabilities were presented. The damage behaviors of composites after fatigue load test were also investigated by scanning electron microscope(SEM). Results indicated the fatigue lives of immersed specimens were shorter than those without hygrothermal effect, the impact damage affects the fatigue life of composite significantly.