Institute of Materials Science and Engineering

DFG priority program 1466 – Life∞:Very high cycle fatigue of carbon fiber reinforced polymers using a new developed ultrasonic testing facility in combination with nondestructive online testing

In recent years, continuous fiber reinforced polymers, and in particular carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP), have been increasingly used for structural parts in industry. Due to insufficient knowledge about the fatigue behavior of CFRPs, cyclic highly loaded CFRP structures are conservatively designed and therefore do not achieve their full potential. In this project, we developed a novel ultrasonic testing facility for cyclic three-point bending at a frequency of 20 kHz for investigating very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) behavior of CFRPs. We used single spot laser vibrometry and infrared (IR) thermography for contactless online monitoring of fatigue damage and for process control. Based on light optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as well as measurements of the stiffness degradation and of the electrical resistivity, we were able to study the VHCF failure mechanisms of CFRP in detail.

The project was funded by the German research foundation (DFG) as part of Priority Program (SPP) 1466.

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