Determination of fatigue life of the unidirectional GFRP/Al hybrid composite laminates

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of loading rate and fiber orientation on the fatigue behavior of the unidirectional glass-fiber reinforced-plastic/aluminum (GFRP/Al) hybrid laminated (GLARE-2) plates. Fatigue tests were performed at three kinds of stress ratios (R = 0.3, 0.1, and −0.1) on specimens with different fiber orientations, θ = 0° 15° 30° 45° 60° 75° and 90° in the GFRP layers. All the fatigue results to be presented in this article were obtained in repeated tension-tension and tension-compression at stress ratios of 0.3, 0.1, and −0.1, and the results were compared with each other. It has been shown that the specimens have the highest fatigue life in the fiber orientation direction at R = 0.3 loading rate. Also, it has been shown that the fatigue life of the specimens decreases as the loading rate decreases.