Fatigue crack growth properties of carbon-polyamide 6 thermoplastic composites using a multi-ΔG control method
The present paper presents a new multi-ΔG control approach to perform mode I fatigue crack growth tests using several constant cyclic energy release rate ranges (ΔG) on only one specimen. It was successfully applied on carbon/polyamide 6 unidirectional composite specimens. After validation checks on the approach, results show that the crack propagation behaviour exhibits three different crack propagation regimes that can be accurately described using the Hartman-Shijves equation. This work has shown that the multi-ΔG control method can provide reliable crack growth propagation results and a complete ΔG versus cycles description.
Keyword(s)
Thermoplastic composites, Mode I, Fatigue crack growth