Damage indicators in unidirectional natural fibre composites under fatigue loading

This paper investigates the occurrence of failure under fatigue loading of unidirectional flax fibre composites with different matrices. Various parameters, such as dissipated energy, residual strain, and stiffness, were measured to evaluate fatigue damage and the fatigue life of composites. The results indicate that absolute dissipated energy may not be the most suitable indicator for assessing damage in natural fibre composites when they are subjected to fatigue before reaching failure. The research proposes to rather consider the “loss factor”, defined as the ratio of dissipated energy to total energy stored in each cycle. This indicator appears to provide a more effective means of evaluating fatigue life of the studied composites, especially when compared to the dissipated energy observed during fatigue tests at low stress levels. Fatigue and acoustic emission results indicate that biocomposites with better fibre–matrix adhesion show a delayed damage initiation and propagation, as well as longer fatigue life.