Fatigue strength prediction of hybrid composites via IR-thermography and energy loss methods

Materials Fatigue life assessment is known to be a time consuming test with high cost and large sample size. To overcome these issues, non-destructive methods provide the possibility for fast determination of material fatigue limit. In the current study the high cyclic fatigue limits of jute/glass reinforced hybrid composites is determined using IR-thermography method by adopting Risitano’s thermographic approach which has not tested yet on natural fiber composites. Also, the effect of jute fiber ratio on fatigue strength of hybrid composites is investigated through three sets of hybrid. In order to validate the determined fatigue limits, the obtained results of thermography were compared with previous conventional fatigue results, also compared with the results of energy loss measurements which effectively predicted the fatigue limit of hybrid composites. Based on the achieved observation and comparisons, the accuracy of measured fatigue limits using thermography method was ranging from 92 - 98% for all composites when compared with corresponded conventional results. In addition, energy loss method has effectively predicted the fatigue limit of hybrid composites that almost matches thermography method results. Lastly, found that there is no significant influence of jute fiber content on fatigue limit detection, as all hybrid composites were almost have similar fatigue strength. According to the results obtained in this work, the reliability of thermographic technique is confirmed to measure fatigue limits of natural fiber composites.