THE EFFECT OF LOADING PARAMETERS ON FATIGUE BEHAVIOR OF INJECTION-MOLDED COMPOSITE

Flexural fatigue tests were performed on an injection-moulded glass-fiber reinforced blend of polyphenylene ether ketone and polyphenylene sulfide composite using four-point bending at a series of fixed mean stress levels with varying stress amplitude. Attention was given to identifying the effects of mean stress and stress amplitude on the fatigue life and failure mechanisms. It was found that the fatigue life of the studied material decreased sharply with increasing stress amplitude at a constant mean stress level and also decreased at a fixed stress amplitude with increasing mean stress. However, analyses of the fatigue data and failure behaviour reveal that, for the studied material, fatigue failure mechanisms depend on the relative importance of mean stress and stress amplitude. At a mean stress level of 80% ultimate flexural strength, the failure results from accumulation of creep strain, while at mean stress levels of 40%, 50% and 60% ultimate flexural strength, the magnitude of stress amplitude influences the type of failure mechanism. As stress amplitude is reduced, the fatigue failure mechanism changes from matrix yielding dominated to crack growth dominated fracture.