Fatigue life prediction of thick CFRP laminates with toughnened interlaminar layers in the out-of-plane direction at different stress ratio

The fatigue life of thick carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminates with toughened interlaminar layers in the out-of-plane direction was evaluated at different stress ratios. The spool shaped specimens were cut out the unidirectional thick CFRP laminates which pile up 88 plies of the prepreg with toughened interlaminar layer, T800S/3900-2B. The fatigue tests were conducted under the stress ratios of R = 0.1, -1, -3 and -6 to evaluate the effect of the stress ratio. As the results of the fatigue tests, the fatigue life of the specimens became shorter as the stress ratio became smaller, i.e. as the absolute values of the compressive stress became higher. It was found that the fatigue properties of the CFRP laminates in the out-of-plane direction are affected by the stress amplitude from the experimental results. In addition, the fatigue life under the different stress ratio was evaluated equivalently using the proposed model, modified H-κ model, which considers the strain energy. The analytical results showed good agreement with experimental results. In addition, the fatigue properties of the thick CFRP laminates in the out-of-plane direction were evaluated with the constant fatigue life diagram derived from the proposed model.