Fatigue crack growth curves for material selection, design and service-life studies of carbon-fibre reinforced-plastic composites: effect of test temperature and R-ratio
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Brunner, AJ
Jones, R
Kinloch, Anthony
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The growth of cracks between plies, i.e. delaminations, in continuous fibre polymer matrix composites under cyclic-fatigue loading in operational aircraft structures has always been a very important factor, which has the potential to significantly decrease the service life of such structures. Whilst current designs are based on a ‘no growth’ design philosophy, delamination growth can nevertheless arise in operational aircraft and compromise structural integrity.
Therefore, the present paper addresses the problem of fatigue crack growth in composite structures, with special relevance to composite airframes. An immediate challenge facing the composites community is to extend the ‘no-growth’ design philosophy to allow for the nucleation and growth of small, naturally-occurring delaminations in composite structures. The main aim of the present paper is, therefore, to investigate the robustness of the Hartman-Schijve methodology to meet this challenge when the effects of test temperature, together with the R-ratio, on the fatigue behaviour are considered.
Therefore, the present paper addresses the problem of fatigue crack growth in composite structures, with special relevance to composite airframes. An immediate challenge facing the composites community is to extend the ‘no-growth’ design philosophy to allow for the nucleation and growth of small, naturally-occurring delaminations in composite structures. The main aim of the present paper is, therefore, to investigate the robustness of the Hartman-Schijve methodology to meet this challenge when the effects of test temperature, together with the R-ratio, on the fatigue behaviour are considered.
Date Issued
2026-03-21
Date Acceptance
2026-02-21
Citation
Applied Composite Materials, 2026, 33
ISSN
0929-189X
Publisher
Springer
Journal / Book Title
Applied Composite Materials
Volume
33
Copyright Statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1007/s10443-026-10461-6
Subjects
CFRP
Composites
Fatigue
Fracture mechanics
Modelling
Servicelife
Test temperature
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 75