Fatigue Behavior of Open-Holed CFRP Laminates with Initially Cut Fibers

Carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminates with initially cut fibers (ICFs) have good formability without large degradation of static strength; however, their fatigue behavior has not been investigated thus far. In this paper, we investigated fatigue behavior and damage progress of open-holed CFRP laminates with ICFs having interlayers. Three types of CFRP laminates were employed: a laminate without ICF fabricated using an autoclave (Continuous-A), a laminate with ICF fabricated using an autoclave (ICF-A) and a laminate with ICF fabricated using press molding (ICF-P). First, fatigue test was conducted to obtain S (maximum stress)-N (the number of cycles to failure) curves in order to reveal fatigue strength. The fatigue tests for several specimens were interrupted at three prescribed numbers of cycles to observe damage progress. It is found that the Continuous-A laminate shows little strength degradation in the S-N curve while fatigue strength in both ICF laminates is decreased by approximately 30% at N of 106. In contrast, the damage progress of the ICF-P laminate is the least among the three laminates while the delamination progress at both edges and around the hole in the Continuous-A laminate is the most prominent.