Hygrothermal effects on fatigue delamination behavior in composite laminates

Fatigue delamination growth (FDG) is an important failure in composite structures during their long-term operations. Hygrothermal aging can have significant effects on interlaminar resistance. It is therefore really necessary to explore FDG behavior in composite laminates with hygrothermal aging. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), mode I FDG experiments and fractographic examinations were conducted to fully investigate hygrothermal aging effects and the corresponding mechanisms on FDG behavior. The DMTA results indicated that environmental aging can induce obvious T_g decrease. Mode I experimental fatigue data interpreted via different Paris-type correlations demonstrated that: Bridging has obvious retardation effects on FDG behavior via the Paris interpretations; The modified Paris relation can well characterize the intrinsic FDG behavior around the crack front; The use of the two-parameter Paris-type relation can appropriately account for R-ratio effects, contributing to a master resistance curve in determining mode I FDG behavior. According to these interpretations, it can be concluded that hygrothermal aging can have adverse effects on mode I FDG behavior. SEM examinations demonstrated that moisture absorption can cause fibre/matrix debonding and resin matrix pores/voids in the composite. However, no obvious difference in damage mechanisms was identified in mode I fatigue delamination for composite with/without environmental conditioning. Both fibre/matrix debonding and matrix brittle fracture were identified on fatigue fracture surfaces. Accordingly, it was concluded that fibre/matrix interface and matrix degradation induced by water absorption were the main reasons for a faster mode I fatigue crack growth in environmental aged composite.