Fatigue of Textile Composites

Preface

Structural components are often exposed to cyclic loading throughout the lifetime, and these cyclic actions degrade the mechanical performance of the materials. The material degradation under cyclic loading is known as ‘fatigue’. The fatigue damage initiation and cyclic propagation may have severe consequence on the structural integrity and may lead to the structural collapse for stress amplitudes lower than the actual strength of materials. Fatigue of materials is a well-known engineering problem, and it was extensively and deeply investigated for metallic materials and structures.

Nowadays, lightweight structures are mainly manufactured with composite materials based on polymers reinforced with long continuous fibres, for weight reduction ...