doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2695.2012.01709.

Effect of fibre volume fraction on fatigue behaviour of glass fibre

reinforced composite
K . M . M I N I 1, M . L A K S H M A N A N 2, L . M A T H E W 3 a n d M . M U K U N D A N 4
1 Professor,Department of Civil Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita Nagar, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu,
India, 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita Nagar,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, 3 Post graduate Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa
Vidyapeetham, Amrita Nagar, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, 4 Post graduate Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of
Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita Nagar, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

Received in final form 14 May 2012

A B S T R A C T The aim of this paper is to study the fatigue behavior of GFRP composites manufactured
by vacuum bagging process by varying the volume fraction. Constant-amplitude flexural
fatigue tests were performed at zero mean stress, i.e. a cyclic stress ratio R = −1 by varying
the frequency of the testing machine. The relationship between stiffness degradation rate
and fibre volume fraction, was observed, and the influence of volume fraction on the tensile
strength was also investigated. The results show that, as the volume fraction increases the
stiffness degradation rate initially decreases and then increases after reaching a certain
limit for the volume fraction. Graph between volume fraction and Young’s modulus shows
that as the volume fraction increases Young’s modulus also increases and reaches a limit
and then it decreases with further increase in volume fraction, due to the increase in fibre
content which changes the material properties of the composite material. The obtained
results are in agreement with the available results.

Keywords fatigue; glass fibres; mechanical properties; mechanical testing.

NOMENCLATURE Hz = Hertz
rpm = Revolutions per minute
V f = Volume Fraction

INTRODUCTION area are, Van Paepagam and Degrieck1 conducted exper-

iments to study the bending fatigue behaviour of glass
Laminated composite plates are extensively used in the
fibre reinforced composite using plain woven glass/epoxy
construction of aerospace, civil, marine, automotive and
specimens. They extended their study on assessing fa-
other high-performance structures due to their high spe-
tigue strength using a new finite element approach and
cific stiffness and strength, excellent fatigue resistance,
by developing fatigue models.2–6 The bending fatigue be-
long durability and many other superior properties com-
haviour of glass–carbon/epoxy hybrid composites is also
pared to the conventional metallic materials. Fatigue be-
studied by many researchers like Belingardi and Cava-
haviour of composite materials has been the subject of
torta,7 Belingardi et al.,8 Raif Sakin et al.9 Hashin and
intense research in recent years because fatigue is known
Rotem10 established a simple fatigue failure criterion for
to be responsible for the majority of failures of struc-
unidirectionally fibre-reinforced laminae. Thomas Hahn
tural components. Research on fatigue of composite is
and Ozgur11 studied the effect of different loading param-
conducted by performing numerous studies, both analyt-
eters like loading frequency, stress ratio and the maximum
ically and experimentally. Fatigue properties of compos-
cyclic stress. Fatigue models to assess the damage evolu-
ite materials are being studied by lot of researchers all
tion in composite materials is studied by Hai et al.,12 Ab-
over the world. Some of the latest contributions in this
delal et al.13 Liu and Mahadevan14 and Jayantha et al.15
Mouleeswaran and Sabapathy16 described static and fa-
Correspondence: Dr. K.M. Mini. E-mail: minikmadhavan@gmail.com tigue analysis of steel leaf spring and composite multi leaf

1160 
c 2012 Wiley Publishing Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 35, 1160–1166
 VOLUME FRACTION ON FATIGUE OF GFRP 1161

spring made up of glass fibre reinforced polymer using Table 1 Properties of E-glass fibre
life data analysis. Muhammad and Hayder17 studied the
fatigue behaviour of composite material manufactured by Density (kg m−3 ) 2620
stacking four layers of E-glass fibre in different angle ori- Tensile strength (MPa) 3450
Young’s Modulus (GPa) 81
entations immersed in polyester resin both experimentally
and theoretically. Ye18 and Caprino and D’Amore19 de-
veloped prediction models to assess the fatigue strength of Table 2 Results of tensile test
composite materials on the basis of residual strength and
stiffness. Sul et al.20,21 formulated combinatory fatigue Volume Ultimate tensile Young’s
models for the short fibre composites and chopped strand S. No fraction (%) strength (MPa) Modulus (GPa)
mat GFRP at elevated temperatures. The mechanics, per-
formance, manufacturing and design of fiber-reinforced 1. 34.40 275.7 36.21
2. 38.63 306.8 46.41
polymers are dealt with so many authors like Mallick,22
3. 48.88 297.85 43.05
Reddy,23 etc. 4. 57.01 250 28.66
Because fatigue performance of composite material is
having a complex nature a lot of research is taking place
in this domain. Several attempts have been made to extend
models for uni-axial constant amplitude to more general ume fraction on the fatigue strength. Various mechan-
loading conditions to take into account the effect of cy- ical properties like tensile strength and hardness of the
cling frequency and fibre volume fraction. Testing of me- prepared specimen are evaluated to check the suitability
chanical properties and conducting a fatigue experiment of the specimen for the testing. The volume fraction of
on fibre reinforced composites with various volume frac- the prepared specimen is found out by the resin burn-off
tions under varying frequencies have been carried out in method.24
the present work. Because the study is mainly focused on
the effect of volume fraction on fatigue strength of com- Tensile strength
posite structures the loading frequency is varied slightly
The tensile strength of the prepared specimen, with a
from 7 Hz to 9 Hz.
standard dimension of 250 mm ×25 mm, is found out
using the Tinius Olsen universal testing machine with
a capacity of 25 kN. It is tested as per ASTM D3039
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION standard.25 The specimen is axially loaded; the test spec-
imens are placed between the two extremely stiff ma-
Specimen preparation
chine heads, of which the lower one was fixed during
In the present study the composite plate is prepared by the test, and the upper head was moved upwards by a
vacuum bag moulding using E-glass woven fibre as the servo hydraulic mechanism. The results of the tensile test
reinforcement, Epoxy AY103 as the matrix and HY991 on the prepared specimen with various volume fractions
as the hardener. The properties of the E-Glass fibre are are given in Table 2. A scanning electron microscopy
given in Table 1. analysis is carried out to reveal the topology of the com-
In addition to these a release film is used for easy removal posite surface. Figure 1 shows the scanning electron mi-
of the specimen. The composite specimen is prepared by crographs of the tensile fracture surfaces of the compos-
varying the fibre content so as to assess the effect of vol- ites having volume fraction of 34.4% and 48.88%. From

Fig. 1 Scanning electron micrographs of the tensile fracture surface of composites:

(a) at 34.4% volume fraction; (b) at 48.88% volume fraction.


c 2012 Wiley Publishing Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 35, 1160–1166
1162 K . M . M i n i et al .
the figure it is observed that there is better fibre/matrix
bonding as the fibre breakage can be seen in the fracture
surface.
Shore D hardness test
The hardness test is conducted on Epoxy AY103 along
with the Hardener HY991 to check whether the matrix
has cured properly and able to achieve the standard value
of D80 at 23 ◦ C. The specimen is cured for 16 h and tested
and was found to achieve a hardness value of D78.5.
Calculation of volume fraction
The volume fraction is defined as the volume of fibre
present in a cured composite and was achieved by chang-
ing the fibre to matrix ratio by using the vacuum bag
moulding process. In the present investigation the volume
fraction is found out by using the resin-burn off method
for which a sample of dimensions 25 mm × 25 mm ×
3 mm is cut from the completely cured composite and is
placed in a silicon crucible and kept in the muffle furnace.
Before initiating the burning process the initial weights
of specimen as well as the crucible is noted. The tempera-
ture for burning the specimen is kept above 550◦ C so that
the resin in the sample gets burned off completely. The
specimen along with the crucible is cooled off and the
weight is taken and volume fractions are calculated. Vol-
ume fractions of 34.40%, 38.63%, 48.88% and 57.01%
are achieved in the present study.
Experimental procedure
In the present study an experimental setup was devel-
oped specially for flexural fatigue testing on cantilever
beam specimens. Although more sophisticated commer-
cial servo hydraulic testing machines are capable of per-
forming the same fatigue experiments, the maintenance
and service costs are high, compared to the costs of this
testing machine. The machine can be used for different fa-
tigue testing frequencies and for different stroke lengths.
Figure 2 shows the photograph of the experimental setup.
Fig. 2 Experimental setup.
The present investigation aims at assessing the fatigue
strength of composite materials with different volume
fractions under different frequencies. Composite plate
with dimensions 350 mm × 350 mm × 3 mm are pre-
pared by vacuum bagging process and specimens with
dimensions of 250 mm × 25 mm × 3 mm are cut from
the plate. A load cell having capacity of 1000 N (Model
No: DB100) was used to measure the load acting on the
specimen.
The number of loading cycles was measured by using a
proximity sensor, which was connected to a digital stroke
counter. The counter is set to zero before starting the ex-
periment. The standard specimen is fixed in the specimen
holder for a gauge length of 200 mm. The free end of the
specimen is connected to the load cell which is attached to
a reciprocating rod. The stroke length is fixed to 100 mm
and the frequency of loading is fixed to 440 rpm (7.33 Hz)
by adjusting the speed of motor. The motor is switched on
and the load is indicated by the load indicator for a given
number of cycles. The number of cycles and the corre-
sponding load values are obtained from a system which
is connected to the experimental set up (data collector).
This procedure is repeated till the load remains constant
after a number of cycles. The test is repeated for spec-
imens with volume fractions 34.40%, 38.63%, 48.88%
and 57.01% and at frequencies of 440 rpm (7.33 Hz), 490
rpm (8.17 Hz) and 540 rpm (9 Hz) at constant amplitude
of 50 mm. The specimens have been tested for 200000 to
400000 cycles.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Any permanent change in the composite material due to
fatigue loading can be defined as the fatigue damage of
the material. Fatigue damage can occur in two ways, as
change in the mechanical properties of the material and
boundary separation of the constituents in that material.
The change in mechanical properties of composite mate-
rial is found by the reduction in stiffness and strength of
the material which is due to the micro-cracking in matrix,
fibre breakage etc. Boundary separation of constituents
includes interfacial de-bonding between constituent ma-
terials, and ply de-lamination in the case of laminates. The
present study is focused on the change in the mechanical
properties due to fatigue loading. The fatigue test is done
on specimens with volume fractions of 34.40%, 38.63%,
48.88% and 57.01% under different loading frequencies
of 440 rpm (7.33 Hz), 490 rpm (8.17 Hz) and 540 rpm
(9 Hz) and with a constant loading amplitude of 50 mm.
The results are plotted between number of cycles and
force acting on the specimen and are shown in Figs 3–5.
The abscissa contains the number of cycles and the ordi-
nate shows the force in Newton.

c 2012 Wiley Publishing Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 35, 1160–1166

Fig. 3 Load versus number of cycles for different volume fractions
at frequency of 440 rpm (7.33 Hz).
Fig. 4 Load versus number of cycles for different volume fractions
at frequency of 490 rpm (8.17 Hz).
Fig. 5 Load versus number of cycles for different volume fractions
at frequency of 540 rpm (9 Hz).

c 2012 Wiley Publishing Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 35, 1160–1166
VOLUME FRACTION ON FATIGUE OF GFRP 1163
Fatigue performance under different frequency
Fatigue performance under loading frequency of 7.33 Hz
Figure 3 illustrate the degradation of stiffness under cyclic
loading on the specimens with volume fractions 34.40%,
38.63%, 48.88% and 57.01% for a loading frequency of
440 rpm (7.33 Hz). Initially there is a significant reduction
in the stiffness of the specimen due to matrix cracking.
For the volume fractions 34.40% and 38.63% gradual
stiffness degradation occurs up to 250,000 cycles because
of matrix cracking and then stiffness degradation due to
fibre cracking starts and then it reaches a constant value.
But at higher volume fractions stiffness degradation due
to matrix cracking is abrupt and after that fibre cracking
starts and a gradual reduction in stiffness is happening.
Hence the initial load carrying capacity of the composite
material decreases as the volume fraction increases.
Fatigue performance under loading frequency of 8.17 Hz
Figure 4 illustrate the degradation of stiffness under fa-
tigue load for the specimens with volume fractions of
34.40%, 38.63%, 48.88% and 57.01% for a loading fre-
quency of 490 rpm (8.17 Hz). For the case of specimens
with volume fractions 34.40% and 38.63% the stiffness
degradation occurs gradually because of matrix cracking
and then the fibre cracking starts and the rate of stiff-
ness degradation increases rapidly and reaches a constant
value after fibre cracking. But at higher volume fractions
of 48.88% and 57.01% the slope of the graph is very steep.
That means at higher volume fractions the material is eas-
ily undergo to stiffness degradation.
Fatigue performance under loading frequency of 9 Hz
Figure 5 illustrate the degradation of stiffness under fa-
tigue load for the specimens with volume fractions of
34.40%, 38.63%, 48.88% and 57.01% for a loading fre-
quency of 540 rpm (9 Hz). Because the frequency is higher
the cracking of the specimen starts earlier and reaches the
constant value at a relatively smaller number of cycles for
all the volume fractions considered. The specimen with
volume fraction 34.40% is broken at 300,000 cycles after
the complete breaking of fibre and the matrix. For the
volume fractions 38.63% stiffness degradation was grad-
ual compared to that of the lower frequencies (Fig. 7).
The volume fractions 48.88 and 57.01% show abrupt
degradation in their stiffness at this higher frequency
(Figs 8 & 9).
Comparison of results
From Figs 3–5 it is observed that for volume frac-
tions of 34.40 and 38.63% stiffness degradation due to
1164 K . M . M i n i et al .

matrix cracking is gradual at all tested frequencies com-

Fig. 6 Load versus number of cycles at different frequencies for
34.40% (V f ).
pared to higher volume fractions where the material is
easily undergoing stiffness degradation. Early damage was
observed after a few hundred loading cycles causing degra-
dation of material stiffness with cycling. The amount of
stiffness reduction was observed to be a function of the
magnitude of applied fatigue loading on the specimen.
These results are in agreement with Thomas Hahn and
Ozgur11 where it is noted that at low frequency ranges
where there is negligible heat dissipation, as the load fre-
quency increases, cycles to failure also increases and as
higher frequency ranges are considered this increase is at
a slower rate.

Fatigue performance at different volume fractions

Fig. 7 Load versus number of cycles at different frequencies for
38.63% (V f ).
Fig. 8 Load versus number of cycles at different frequencies for
48.88% (V f ).
Volume fraction is the quantitative expression of fibre
content in a composite material and is defined as the vol-
ume of fibre in a cured composite. In composite structures
fibres are the major load carrier and the amount of fibre
in a composite affects its properties. The fibre content
increases the stiffness of the composite material against
the bending load. So as the volume fraction increases the
stiffness degradation rate decreases under fatigue load-
ing. But stiffness degradation rate increases after reaching
a certain limit for the volume fraction. The load carry-
ing capacity of the specimen under fatigue loading with
different volume fractions are shown in Figs. 6–9.
From figures it is observed that the volume fraction of
57.01% fails earlier than that of materials with lower vol-
ume fractions, even though the fibre content is more in
higher volume fraction. That means further increase in fi-
bre content causes the reduction in the bonding strength
of the composite material and the material undergo rapid
stiffness degradation. The results are in agreement with
Van Paepagam and Degrieck1 where they observed that
for specimens made of same materials and with different
configurations have different damage behaviour and their
stiffness degradation follows different path.
Volume fraction versus Young’s modulus graph (Fig. 10)
shows that as the volume fraction increases Young’s

Fig. 9 Load versus number of cycles at different frequencies for

57.01% (V f ). Fig. 10 Variation of Young’s Modulus with volume fraction.


c 2012 Wiley Publishing Ltd. Fatigue Fract Engng Mater Struct 35, 1160–1166

modulus also increases and reaches a limit and then
Young’s modulus decreases with further increase in vol-
ume fraction. The change in Young’s modulus is due to
the increase in fibre content which changes the material
properties of the composite material. The volume fraction
having the maximum value for Young’s modulus is found
to be 41%.
CONCLUSION
In the present study the fatigue strength of composite
specimen of different volume fractions under cyclic bend-
ing load of different loading frequencies are reported. The
stiffness degradation rate and its dependence on the vol-
ume fraction are analyzed and it is observed that as the
volume fraction increases, initially the stiffness degrada-
tion rate decreases because the fibre content increases
the stiffness of the composite material against the fatigue
loading. It is also found that the stiffness degradation rate
increases after reaching a certain limit for the volume
fraction. Hence specimens with the volume fraction of
57.01% fails earlier than that of materials with lower vol-
ume fractions, even though the fibre content is more. That
means further increase in fibre content causes the reduc-
tion in the bonding strength of the composite material
and the material undergo rapid stiffness degradation.
As the volume fraction increases the Young’s modulus
also increases initially and it reaches a maximum value and
then the Young’s modulus decreases with further increase
in the volume fraction. From the present investigation
it is found that for the volume fraction between 38.63%
and 48.88% the Young’s modulus decreases from 46.41
to 43.05 GPa. The optimal volume fraction is found to be
41% from the graph, which is near to 38.63%, where the
stiffness degradation rate is less compared to other volume
fractions tested. Hence it can be concluded that stiffness
degradation rate will be less at the volume fraction where
the Young’s modulus is maximum. Even though the initial
load capacity decreases with increase in volume fraction,
the stiffness degradation rate becomes less as the volume
fraction reaches 41%.
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