On the Determination of the Fatigue Life of Laminated Graphite-Epoxy Composite by Means of Temperature Measurement

The research dealt with the correlation between fatigue life of a CFRP laminate composite and the thermal analysis information obtained during the fatigue tests. This study was done for two different lamination sequences and three different loading frequencies. The damage progression was also evaluated by stiffness reduction and hysteresis loop areas increase measurements. The thermal energy, which is the amount of mechanical energy dissipated in the form of heat, evaluated in the first few load cycles was found to be a good parameter to predict fatigue life.