Fatigue crack growth in epoxy polymer nanocomposites
Abstract
The present paper describes detailed analyses of experimental data for the cyclic-fatigue behaviour of epoxy nanocomposite polymers. It has been shown that the data may be interpreted using the Hartman–Schijve relationship to yield a unique, ‘master’, linear relationship for each epoxy nanocomposite polymer. By fitting the experimental data to the Hartman–Schijve relationship, two key materials parameters may be deduced: (i) the termA, which may be thought of as the fatigue equivalent to the quasi-static value of the fracture energy,Gc, and (ii) the fatigue threshold value,ΔGthr, below which no significant fatigue crack growth (FCG) occurs. It has then been established that the values of these parameters, together with the slope,n, and intercept,D, of the Hartman–Schijve master relationship, may be used (i) to compute the experimental results measured for the fatigue behaviour of the epoxy nanocomposite polymers, (ii) to understand the observed fracture and fatigue behaviour of these materials with respect to the structure of the epoxy nanocomposite polymers, and (iii) to deduce the ‘upper-bound’, i.e. ‘worst-case’, FCG rate curve which may be used by industry as a material development, material selection, design and service-life prediction tool when these epoxy nanocomposite polymers are used in engineering applications such as structural adhesives and/or as matrices in fibre-reinforced composites.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jun 21, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1098/rsta.2020.0436
Entities
People
- Anthony James Kinloch
- John G Michopoulos
- Rhys Jones
Organizations
- Imperial College London
- Monash University
- Office of Naval Research
- Swinburne University of Technology
- United States Naval Research Laboratory