Date of Award

January 2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Engineering (MEngr)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Matthew Cavalli

Abstract

In this work, fatigue behavior of glass fiber composite has been being investigated at different stress ratios and compared them with some previous model from literature. Ten layers of unidirectional glass fibers are used. Glass fibers and resin were supplied by LM Wind Power, a leading manufacturer of wind turbine blades. The plates were made by the VARTM (Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding) process to control fiber volume fraction and void content. Specimens were then post cured. Volume fraction was determined by burn off test and material strength by 4 point bending static testing. Four point bending fatigue tests were conducted at different stress ratios (min stress/max stress). S-N curve analysis, stiffness degradation analysis, model fit with desirable fatigue model and image processing has performed. This research is showing a transition of failure mechanism with the variation of maximum applied stress.

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