Construction and Building Materials, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp.

425430, 1995
Copyright 8 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd
Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
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0950-0618(95)00073-9

Tensile and fatigue behaviour of

glassfibre/epoxy laminates

F. Ellyin and D. Kujawski

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta,

Canada T6G 2G8

Received 11 October 1994; accepted 7 July 1995

The behaviour of unidirectional 45”. angle-ply k 45” and multidirectional 1~45”,0”1, fibreglass/epoxy
laminates at room temperature under tensile and fatigue loadings has been investigated. Results
for angle-ply 2 45” laminates show that the rate/frequency effect is significant in both tensile and
fatigue loadings. In the case of tensile loading tests, the rate effect was observed in the stress-strain
response. Fatigue data indicate a considerable accumulated cyclic creep which depends on the
loading condition, i.e. applied load and frequency. The effect of frequency on the fatigue life is
explained in terms of cyclic creep and its detrimental influence on the fatigue resistance. In con-
trast, laminates made of 45” unidirectional and multidirectional [~45”,0”12 show very little frequency
effects.

Keywords: composite materials; creep and relaxatibn; rate and frequency effects

It is well recognized that fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) may be reduced due to stress reduction related to relax-
composites have excellent creep and fatigue properties ation effects. In order to better understand these rate/
when loaded in the reinforcement direction. However, frequency-dependent damage processes and to obtain
these observations are of limited value when attempts an insight towards analytical formulation, appropriate
are made to characterize the behaviour of angle-ply experimental data are needed.
construction (laminates) which are used in engineering Figure 1 illustrates the variation in the tensile strength
applications. This is because the angle-ply lay-up signifi- and strain at failure ver.suSangle-ply orientation, & 0, of
cantly alters the load transfer between the viscoelastic symmetric glassfibre/epoxy laminates (fibre content
matrix and relatively stiff elastic fibres due to their mis- - 70% by weight). The figure clearly indicates that there
match orientations’,*. is a characteristic pattern in tensile strength (a single
In general, two major types of failure modes can be sliding curve) and strain at failure (a climbing and slid-
identified for FRP composites, viz. fibre dominated fail- ing curve) variations. Obviously, the maximum strength
ure and matrix dominated failure3-‘. For example, at lOi corresponds to 8 = 0” and the strength decreases with
cycles a typical normalized fatigue resistance, 0,/o, the increasing angle-ply orientation, + 8. On the other
(stress amplitude/tensile .strength) is - 0.3 and - 0.5 for
matrix and fibre dominated composites, respectively.
Laminates with sufficient 0” layers, i.e. layers with fibres
oriented in the load direction, will exhibit fibre domi-
nated failure mode. This type of failure is essentially
independent of the rate/frequency of loading. On the
other hand, the matrix dominated failure mode is a rate/
frequency-dependent phenomenon due to the viscoelas-
tic matrix behaviour. The viscoelastic dependent matrix
behaviour plays an essential role in fatigue performance
of polymeric composites ‘-” . The damage development
associated with the matrix and matrix-fibre interface
cracking involves inelastic resin deformation which is
accompanied by relaxation and creep phenomena.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90’
For load-controlled fatigue tests, a cyclic creep may Angle-ply Orientation, 28 (deg.)
be induced which results in increasing rate of macro-
scopic damage accumulation. On the other hand, in Figure 1 Variation of tensile strength and strain at failure versus
angle-ply orientation measured with respect to the applied load
deformation-controlled situations, damage development direction

Construction and Building Materials 1995 Volume 9 Number 6 425

Glassfibre/epoxy laminates: F. El/yin and D. Kujawski

hand, the maximum strain at failure coincides with Tensile loading tests
rfr45” lay-up. This large strain is basically inelastic1’,‘2
Testing procedure
and this is of practical importance, since it is associated
with the increased toughness and gives a desirable All tests were carried out at room temperature in an
MTS servo-controlled system using a ramp function
warning before failure. In contrast, the strongest 0”
generator. The load-displacement response was
laminate exhibits a brittle type of failure with a very
recorded by an X-Y plotter. The extension over a
limited warning prior to failure. Therefore, the behav-
gauge length of 25.4 mm was measured by a clip-on
iour of a composite in which the lay-up is ?45” in corn;
extensometer and this measurement was converted to
bination with 0” layers is of practical interest in
engineering strain and strain rate using standard
engineering applications. methods. Engineering stresses based on the original
This paper examines qualitatively the rate and fre- cross-section were used throughout this study.
quency effect on the stress-strain response and fatigue Tensile tests were performed with different rates of
behaviour of angle-ply glassfibre/epoxy laminates. strain and hold time periods to investigate nonlinear
It should be remembered that, for members with multi- rate time-dependent behaviour.
axial stress states and particularly those with varying
principal stress directions, it is difficult to orient fibres Strain-rate controlled test
in the principal directions throughout the cross-section. The effect of strain rate on the stress-strain behaviour
An appropriate representative material for an experi- was studied by changing the strain rate from lOA to
mental investigation of the time-dependent effects 1o-3 s-l.
in matrix dominated composites is the ?45” laminate The data from the strain-rate controlled tests with
with a quasi-ductile behaviour2~4~8~‘0; it provides an relaxation periods” were analysed by determining the
indication of the inelastic behaviour of polymeric com- characteristic stress level for a given strain at different
posite materials when they are loaded in an off-axis strain rates. The results are shown in Figure 2 together
situation. with the corresponding stress-strain curves. Figure 2
indicates that a unique stress-strain curve is associated
with a given strain rate. It is seen that the effect of the
Material and specimens strain rate becomes more pronounced with the decreas-
The material employed in this investigation was sup- ing tangent modulus of the stress-strain curve, i.e. in
plied by the 3-M Company in procured sheet form of the higher stress levels.
unidirectional roll designated as Scotchply Reinforced Figure 3 compares the differences in the tensile stress-
Plastic Type 1003*. The glass fibre used is a continuous strain behaviour of three lay-ups: off-axis 45”, angle-ply
+ 45” and multidirectional [+ 45”, 0’1s glassfibre/epoxy
filament ‘E’ type glass within the epoxy resin (resin con-
laminates at a strain-rate of - lo4 s-‘. It is seen that the
tent 36 ? 3% by weight).
angle-ply laminate exhibits a ductile type behaviour,
Coupon test specimens with nominal dimensions of
whereas multidirectional and off-axis laminates are
200 x 12.7 x 5 mm, were fabricated by a hand cuttings
rather brittle. The tensile fracture strain for the angle-
and lay-up (three specimens at a time) technique in a ply laminate is about an order of magnitude larger than
specially designed mould unit. The angle-ply [+45],, that of the multidirectional or the off-axis one. The cor-
samples consist of a total of 20 layers, each layer being responding tensile strength differs by a factor of two. In
(0.254 mm thick) of alternating + 45” and - 45” fibre
orientations symmetric with respect to the mid-plane.
The samples were then cured in the mould in a pre-
heated oven at 150°C (300°F). An initial pressure to the
125
mould of about 175 kP was applied by tightening six
bolts. After 12 hours curing at 15O”C, the mould was
allowed to cool in the oven to room temperature. The
void content of the samples was found to be about 3%.
To prevent premature failure in the wedge grips of
the testing machine, aluminium tabs were glued to the
ends of samples before the three monotonic failure
tests were carried out. The average values of the mono-
tonic failure stress, a, and the initial axial elastic mod-
ulus, E,, were: o, = 203 MPa and E, = 10,070 MPa,
25
respectively.

0
0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 E
Strain,E (%)
*Structural Products, Industrial Specialities Division/3M, 220-7E 3M
Centre, St Paul, Minnesota 55144, USA. Figure 2 Influence of strain-rate behaviour of 545” laminate

426 Construction and Building Materials 1995 Volume 9 Number 6

 Glassfibre/epoxy laminates: F. El/yin and D. Kujawski

’ + [i45”.0”], Lamimate

[171
I (4
Spulman D3
f=3.6 Hz. N,=6576

i Tl

P ED = 14400 MPa

A
Angle-Ply
i45” Lamin,,,

La

0: .-
0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03
0 2 4 6 6 10 12 14 16 Strain, E
Strain, E (%)

Figure 3 Stress-strain behaviour of unidirectional 45”, angle-ply

Spdmw E3
+ 45” and multidirectional [45”, O”]s fibreglass/epoxy laminates fz3.6 Hz. Nt=702964 I

general, unidirectional off-axis laminates show lower

strength than angle-ply laminates, + 0, due to the con-
straint action of fibres in subsequent plies. In the case of
the multidirectional laminate with three ply angle orien-
tations ?45” and O”, the actual tensile strength depends
on the stacking sequence13.

Frequency effects in fatigue tests

Testing procedure
Tension-tension fatigue tests were carried out at room
temperature using the same MTS servo-controlled test-
ing machine. Cycling was between fixed load limits with
a load ratio of R = (min. load/max. load) - 0.05. The
load was applied in a sinusoidal waveform at two fre-
quencies, i.e. a low frequency of 0.417 Hz, and a high
frequency of 3.6 Hz. For the low frequency tests, a
command signal was provided by the MTS function
generator and the data from the load cell and a 25.4
mm gauge length extensometer were recorded by an
X-Y plotter. In the case of the high frequency tests, an
IBM PC computer was used to provide a command
signal and to record the data. In the following sections,
test results for the angle-ply +45” are presented.
Stress-strain response
Typical cyclic stress-strain diagrams obtained at the
high frequency tests for two stress levels corresponding
to GaX = 97.4 MPa and 65.0 MPa (or 48% and 32% of
tensile strength) are shown in Figures 4a and 4b, respec-
tively. A significant accumulation of cyclic creep and
decrease in the specimen stiffness are observed with the
increasing number of cycles. For specimen D3 subjected
to a relatively high stress level (48% of tensile strength)
the material exhibits a moderate hysteresis loop. The
area of this loop represents energy loss for each load
cycle. Most of this energy is converted into heat and is
dissipated. At relatively high stresses and frequencies
I
0.02 0.03
Strain, E
Figure 4 Stress-strain response of f45” laminate under cyclic load-
ing: (a) high stress test, (b) low stress test. Note the accumulation of
creep strain at the minimum applied stress
the rise of temperature may affect fatigue life2s4.In the
test reported here no significant heating of the sample
was observed.
Cyclic creep
The development of cyclic creep strain (accumulated
strain at minimum load), E, versus life ratio N/N,
(number of cycles/number of cycles to failure) for the
two investigated frequencies, is shown in Figure 5.
These curves resemble typical creep curves with an ini-
tial rapid creep which is followed by a secondary and
tertiary creep behaviour just before final fracture.
Computed values of the cyclic creep rate, dEldN,
versus the life ratio, N/N, for both frequencies are
depicted in Figure 6. The rate of cyclic creep is initially
high, it then decreases sharply towards an approximately
steady state, and subsequently increases to a high rate
just before fracture. At higher stress levels (the upper
curves in Figure 6) the cyclic creep rate is higher for the
fast tests than for the slower ones. On the other hand, at
lower stress levels, this trend is reversed. All the curves
in Figure 6 tend to exhibit a characteristic wide ‘U’

Construction and Building Materials 1995 Volume 9 Number 6 427

Glassfibre/epoxy laminates: F. El/yin and D. Kujawski

0:2 0:4 : 016 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.6

Life Ratiq”~/N, Life Ratio, N/N,

Figure 5 Accumulated cyclic creep strain versus life ratio of f45” laminate: (a) low frequency tests, (b) high frequency tests

1
1
f=3.6 Hz f=0.417 Hz

% _Nt=+p_ _ X Nf=2552
L f-J.6 Hz
EB Nf=6576
___-___ 0 Nf=17713

$ Nfd36506
____-__ 0 Nf=62500

* y~=~g~6> 0 Nf=l66100
I

3c Nf=2613 ‘6
q Nf=6576
$ Nf=136506
* Nf=702964

0.5 I I I I
0.2 0.0

Figure 7 Cyclic degradation of normalized elastic modulus versus life

ld91
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
Life Ratio,N/Nf
Figure 6 Variation of cyclic creep rate versus life ratio of +45”
laminate
shape. This signifies that each specimen is subjected to
an approximately steady rate of cyclic creep (secondary
creep) for most of its life.
The degradation of apparent cyclic elastic modulus
upon reloading, E,, was also investigated. The degrada-
tion in modulus can be related to the combined internal
damage of the material I4715 . In the current investigation,
the damage which occurred in the laminate was caused
by matrix cracking parallel to the fibres and some
delamination. The variation of the normalized elastic
modulus versus life ratio is shown in Figure 7 for the
fast tests with a frequency of 3.6 Hz. A general trend in
the decay of normalized modulus with increasing life
ratio of * 45” laminate
0.6 1 ratio is observed. An initial rapid decay of the apparent
cyclic modulus is noted in the figure. Similar trends in
the degradation of the cyclic moduli were observed for
the slow tests with a frequency of 0.417 Hz. It is inter-
esting to note that the rate of degradation of cyclic
moduli, i.e. the slope of the curves in Figure 7, is ini-
tially high, and it then decreases gradually towards an
approximately steady value.
It is seen that, from both Figures 5 and 7, the initial
rapid degradation of cyclic moduli coincides with the
primary stage of cyclic creep.
Futigue lijk
Fatigue life data in terms of normalised maximum
stress, cr,,J~rversus number of cycles to failure, Nr, are
shown in Figure &I. The normalised maximum stress
versus the steady rate of cyclic creep (calculated at the
secondary stage of cyclic creep) is shown in Figure 8b.
Both sets of lines, i.e. the fatigue life curves and the

428 Construction and Building Materials 1995 Volume 9 Number 6

 Glassfibre/epoxy laminates: F. El/yin and D. Kujawski

lo”

(b)

Legend Legend
Cl ~=+:s_Y?.
_ 0 !9.6!S_
, ft.417 HZ n f=.417 Hz

lo- I 1 1111”11 ’ “““‘I ’ “m

6
16’ lo-’ -O 16
Cycles to Failure, N, Cyclic Creep Rate,‘&N

Figure 8 Normalized maximum stress versus: (a) number of cycles to failure; (b) steady rate of cyclic creep of +45” laminate

cyclic creep rate curves corresponding to the slow and
fast tests, cross over at approximately the same level.
For the normalised maximum stresses below the cross-
over point the fatigue life decreases and the cyclic creep
rate increases with the reduced loading frequency. In
contrast, at higher stresses (above the cross-over point)
the fatigue life decreases and the cylic creep rate
increases with the higher frequency. The detrimental
influence of the cyclic creep on the fatigue life is evident
from examination of Figure 8.
Discussion of results
The results of this study clearly demonstrate that the
inelastic deformation of the glassfibre/epoxy laminate
with angle-plied fibre orientation of +45” is rate (fre-
quency)-dependent.
The strain rate effects on stress-strain behaviour
shown in Figure 2 indicate that a unique stress-strain
curve is associated with a given strain rate. Due to the
matrix dominated deformation of this angle-plied lami-
nate, the rate effects carry over to the fatigue perfor-
mance which indicate a significant influence of
frequency. The frequency effects on the cyclic
stress-strain behaviour, the cyclic creep and the fatigue
life are shown in Figures 4, 5, 6 and 8. The results indi-
cate that the cyclic creep which depends on the loading
condition, i.e. applied load and frequency has a signifi-
cant effect on the fatigue life. From Figure 8 it is seen
that at low stress levels the fatigue life decreases and the
cyclic creep rate increases with reduced loading fre-
quency. In contrast, at higher stresses the trend is oppo-
site (i.e. the fatigue life decreases and the cyclic creep
rate increases with higher frequency).
It would appear that at high loads an increase in fre-
quency will result in an increased cyclic creep due to
local heating and stress heterogeneity. On the other
hand, at low loads more cyclic creep can be developed
with decreasing frequency because the system will be
paring this figure with Figure 5(b) it can be seen that
the initial rapid decay of cyclic moduli coincides with
the primary stage of cyclic creep.
The challenge in designing polymeric composite com-
ponents is, therefore, to reduce the creepitime-depen-
dent behaviour. One way of achieving this is to combine
various ply orientations, so that the major principal
stress component is closely aligned with a fibre orienta-
tion during the entire load history. An example of
reduced time-dependency response is given below.
Figure 9 shows the fatigue test results for the multi-
directional laminate [+45”,0”], for slow and fast frequen-
cies16. The results are plotted in terms of normalized
maximum stress versus the number of cycles to failure.
In contrast to the angle-ply laminates, no noticeable fre-
quency effect on fatigue life is seen, and a single best-fit
line appears to describe the results fairly well. In addi-
tion and as a result of the constraining action of the 0”
plies, no significant cyclic creep was observed. Thus, it
can be concluded that, as there is no cyclic creep there
is no significant frequency effect in the multidirectional
specimens. However, the fatigue performance of multi-
directional laminates depends on the lay-up sequence
and stress level. Furthermore, details concerning stack-
ing sequence effects on fatigue strength of laminates
with three ply angle orientations, 49, - 45” and 0” may
be found in Reference 13.
::
I
u Legend
3 - 0 13.3 Hz
z 0 kO.417 Hz
slow and fart
E

under load for a greater period of time for creep to 2

16’ lo’ I , I ,,,1,,
ld I , , , ,111, 18 , , ( I ,,,,,
10’ , , 1, ,,,,,
develop. 10”
Detrimental influence of the cyclic creep on the Cycles to Failure, Nf
damage development is manifested in the degradation Figure 9 Normalized maximum stress versus number of cycles to
of cyclic moduli which is shown in Figure 7. By com- failure for multidirectional laminateI

Construction and Building Materials 1995 Volume 9 Number 6 429

Glassfibre/epoxy laminates: F. Ellyin and D. Kujawski
-2
---Y --.__p
V f-J.33 Hz, R=O
Cycles to Failure, N,
Figure 10 Fatigue behaviour of unidirectional 45”” and angle-ply
245” laminates
Finally, Figure 10 demonstrates the difference in
fatigue performance between off-axis 45” and angle-ply
?45” glassfibre/epoxy laminates. It is seen that, for a
given life span, the angle ply laminates are about two
times stronger than off-axis ones. However, in contrast
to the angle-ply lay-ups, no noticeable frequency effect
on fatigue life was observed for the off-axis laminates”.
In addition, no significant cyclic creep was measured
for the off-axis laminate. It follows that the frequency
effect on the fatigue behaviour is a function of the
cyclic creep.
Conclusions
An experimental investigation has been carried out to
examine the rate and frequency dependent behaviour
of unidirectional 45”, angle-ply +45”, and [?45”, O”],
glassfibre/epoxy laminates.
The results show that the rate (frequency) effects are
significant for +45” laminates at room temperature in
both tensile and fatigue loadings. The rate effects were
noted in the stress-strain response. The loading fre-
quency has a significant effect on the fatigue perfor-
mance of these angle-ply laminates. This effect is
explained in terms of cyclic creep and its detrimental
influence on the fatigue life. In contrast, laminates made
of 45” unidirectional and multidirectional [*45”, O”],
show very little frequency effect.
The results demonstrate that there is a trade-off
between strength and ductility among the laminates
studied. In a design based on strength only, multidirec-
tional +45” and 0” lay-up is to be used for tensile and
fatigue loading. However, if ductility is of importance
then it would be necessary to use a k45” lay-up, and a
knowledge of the rate and the frequency effects would be
430 Construction and Building Materials 1995 Volume
essential. The unidirectional 45” laminates exhibit the
poorest performance in both tensile and fatigue loadings.
Acknowledgements
The research is supported, in part, by the Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada,
grant A-3808 and NSERC CRD grant 120764 with
Imperial Oil Resources Limited of Canada.
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9 Number 6