Proceedings of the FIrSt Pacific/AsIa Offshore Me( hamcs SymposIum

Seoul, Korea, 2428 June, 1990

COPYright @1990 by The InternatIOnal SocIety of OffshOle and Polar Engme" s

ANALYSIS ON FATIGUE FRACTURE OF PITCH TYPE CFRP BY AE METHOD

R I Murakami
Fuilt'l"iry 01 Tol,u,/iillla
Toku5lJ1l11a .JAP.1S

T. Adachi
HIJalp

('OI'POI<l/101i

OoaJ,.<I . .lAP.,LV

K Aklzono
Toku,iJima BUIJJI [illilf'loH.l'
SlliC/o. l\aAall d .J.4P.4N

H N'agata and A Hachlya

O~aka

Ga$ ('0 Ltd.

O'<llicl . .lA PAX

fractography.

ABSTRACT
Fatigue strength of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, CFRP, in which pitc~ type ~ar
bon fiber was combined :in an epox:iJ.d:e resin ma'trix with a fiber content of 33%'. by.' weight,
was studied by means of an AE me1thod and: fractography. For CFRP, the ratio of ~atigue
strength to ultimate tensile strength is,
greater than that of epoxide resin. Such a, result suggests that the pitch type carbon fiber
contributes to an increase in fatigue strength
under cyclic stress. Also, the fatigue
strength for CFRP decreases with increasing
mean stress.

Z. MATElRIlIl<LS Mfi))1 EXP1ilR<lilitlil'N1l111lE. PROCEDURE,

Key Words; Fatigue fracture, CFRP,

Acoustic emission, Fractography.
1. INTRODUCTION
Pitch type canbon fiber has recently been
developed and has many superior properties. It
is necessary to estimate the fatigue properties for CFRP so as to be widely used as the
components of structures. It is well known
that for CFRP, an effect of cyclic stress appears as a fatigue damage(Fujii and Zako, 1985).
Many studies have been investigated for the
fatigue properties of PAN type CFRP. Maiser et
al(1986) have found that the fatigue damage
can be divided lnto three stages. Poursartip
et al(1986) have shown that the fatigue damage is the decohesion with the cracking of resin matrix. An acoustic emission method may
analyze the fatigue damage in CFRP(Suzuki
et aI, 1987, Shiwa et aI, 1986).
In this study, an acoustlC emission method used to analyze fatigue damage in pitch
type CFRP. Because fatigue damages of resin
matrix, carbon fiber and their interface were
related with microscopic fracture morphology,
the fatigue properties for CFRP tried to be
clear using an acoustic emission method and

149

The ma,teria.l used is. ~aJJrbol'l: flber reinforced plastic ln wru:iJchl c:ara]1tar ~11,tdl\ type
carbon fiber were rand'0l11l]W c:omblinEd 1n epoxide
resin with a flber c(imtem emf allrout 33%. ThlS
CF~ is laminated 8' layers Ill7li the- cond1tion o'f
temperature of 403K and pressure of 0.5MPa for
20 min. The ultimate tensile strength, Young
modulus and elongation of CFRP are 69.1MPa,
5900MPa, and 1%" respectively. F'j,g.1 shows the
dimension of fatigue specimen,.
Fatigue tests were done on an MTS electro-hydraulic fatigue testing machine for two
stress ratios of R=O and 0.5 at a constant
frequency of 20Hz. To obtain a fundamental fatigue properties of resin matrlx, the fat1gue
test was also done for epoxy at a stress ratio
of R=O.
The measurement of acoustic emission(AE)
wave was performed by using two AE sensors
which were bonded on a fatigue specimen surface at interval of 60mm. After fatigue tests,
the AE waves were analyzed using 16b1t microcomputer and then AE cumulative event count,
AE energy and AE amplitude were represented
against the number of cycles. Fractography was
done by using SEM.

Fig.1 Fat1gue specimen

of the stress ,,~litude and is a constant of

about 5.4MPa*m
. This suggests that as the
fat1gue damage for CFRP has approached a constant value, the fatigue fracture would be
happened.
Fig.4 shows typical fractographs of CFRP
for R=O. For R=O, there are the plain and m1rror like pattern in epoxide resin. Neverthless
the carbon fiber is randomly oriented in the
resin matrix, 1t fails vertically to the load
axis. The surface of carbon fiber is smooth
and does not adhere to epoxide resin. As shown
in Fig.5, the roughness of the final fracture
surface is great and the epoxide resin adheres
to the carbon fiber. Then, the cyclic stress
gives rise to the damage of resin matrix-carbon fiber interface and may promote to an interfacial decohesion for CFRP.
When the stress ratio increases from R=O
to R=0.5, the morphology of fatigue damage
plane is almost the same as that for R=O, as
shown in Fig.6. Thereis a mirror like area
(Kunio, 1982) on the fatigue fracture surface,
as shown in Fig.7. This pattern is very Slm1lar to the fracture appearance of resin matrix
1n CFRP, as shown in Fig.4.

3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3-1 S-N Curve of CFRP
Fig.2 shows S-N curves of pitch type CFRP
for the stress ratios of R=O and 0.5. Fig.2
also includes the result of epoxide resin for
,R=O. For R=O, though there are a few scattered
fatigue strength of CFRP, the S-N curve 1S div1ded into three regions; Stage (a), (b) and
(c). Such a division agrees well w1th a general feature of S-N curve for composite mater1als(Shiwa et aI, 1986). When the stress ratio increases, the decrease in fatigue
strength is greater in high cycle region than
in low cycles region. The same dependence of
fatigue strength on stress ratio has been
studied by the other researchers(Fujii and
Zako, 1985).
7
The fatigue strength at 10 cycles for
CFRP is about 5.6 times greater than that for
epoxy. This suggests that the orientation of
pitch type carbon fiber in resin matrix contributes to 1ncrease in fatigue strength.
Slnce the ratio of fatigue strength to ultimate tensile strength is 72% for CFRP but is
about 10% for epoxy, the decrease in fatigue
strength due to CyCl1C stress is less for CFRP
than for epoxy.

3-3 Relation between AE Proterties and Fatigue

Damage
Fig.8 shows the relation between AE cumulative event count or AE energy and number ,of

CrRP.'4
~

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2

__~________~Cf.~P,~R'~4~~~________

~1

Fig.2 S-N curves for CFRP

3-2 Fractographic Results
We have observed the corner cracking on
fat1gue
fracture surface and have measured its shape
and dimension. Then, the critical stress intensity, Kfc ' at final fatigue fracture was
decided (Murakami , 1987). Fig.3 shows the rela:ion between the Kf value and stress ampl1tude for R=O. The k fc value is independent

Fig.4 Fractograph of fatgiue damage

plane for CFRP, R=O, c(L=23MPa

....

20
G'.

30

(MPa)

Fig.5 Fractograph of fainal fracture

surface for CFRP, R=O, c(~=23MPa

Fig.3 Fatigue fracture toughness

for CFRP

150

Fig.7 Fractograph of fatigue fracture

surface for epoxy, R=0,<Jo.=11.6MPa

Fig.6 Fractograph of fatigue damage

plane for CFRP, R=O, c(~=15.7MPa

does not appear. In Region 1, AE events below

0.7mV frequently occurs on tensile loading
process before a maximum tensile stress while
a few AE events occur on unloadIng process as
shown In Fig.lO(a). The occurrence of AE are
similar to that for GFRP(Shiwa et aI, 1986)
but considerably differs from that for metal
(orioue et aI, 1982). As shown in Fig. 10(b),
there is a few AE in Region 2. This AE has
large amplitude from 2mV to 7mV and sporadically happens, as shown in Fig.ll. Region 3,
the low and high amplitude of AE frequently
happens on both the tensile loading and unloading processes.
For R=0.5, the relation between the occurrence condition of AE and the number of
cycles is also divided into three regions as

cycles for CFRP, R=O and stress amplitude, 0"'0- =

30MPa. The fatigue damage process is divided
into three regions according to AE cumulative
event count as follows; Region 1 means the
pro~ess that AE cumulative event count linearly Increase~ with increasing number of cycles
(N f 12.5*10 cycles). Region2 means the process that AE cumulative event count sc~recely
changes w~th number of cycles (12.5*10 cycles
Nf 17*10 cycles). Region 3 means the process
that AE cumulative event count rapidly increases ~ith l~creasing number 0$ cycles and
the specImen fInally fails(17*10 cycles N ).
.
When the stress amplitude decreases, ~e
glon 2 expands and transfers to Region 3 . t
before a final fracture as shown in Fig 9JU~f_
ter an enfurance limit of specimen, Regio~ 3

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------~ ______ I _____ ~--_-_I

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Fig.8 Relation between AE cumulative event

count or AE energy and number of cycles,
CFRP, R=O, ~~=30MPa

(a) Region 1,
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1-----~- -----~ ------~ -----~_ ----.. III

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--T------r-----'---- I

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Phase of Load
No of eye les

25000.00

(b) Region 2

Fig.9 Relation between AE cumulative event

count or AE energy and number of cyclles,
CFRP, R=O. 5, cr'1l. =25MPa

151

Fig.10 Relation between stress cycle and

AE event count for CFRP, R=O, <J1l.=30MPa

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---r-----'-----I
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-----,------,----

-----r-----'-----I
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(mY)

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No of (yeles

10.00

1111866.00

Fig.12 Relation between AE cumulative event

count or AE energy and number of cycles
for CFRP, R=O. 5, 0'110 =16. 7MPa

Fig.ll Relation between AE amplitude

and AE event count for CFRP
shown in Fig.12. But, Region 2 is small and
the AE does not happen on unloading process.
This suggests that there is a critical stress
for an occurrence of AE on the unloading process. Then, when the stress ratio increases,
it is considered that for R=O.5, the AE would
not happen on the unloading process since the
mlnimum cyclic stress is greater than a critical stress. For epoxide resin, the AE event
has a low amplitude below 1.6mV as shown in
Flg.13. These AE events are a very similar to
that in Region 1 for CFRP.
Shiwa et al(1986) have shown the same AE
events for GFRP with epoxide matrix as the
present study. According to their study, the
AE events in Region 1 result from the failure
of epoxide matrix: It has also been reported
that the microcracking initiates in the resin
matrix under a considerable low stress(Sato
et aI, 1986). As mentioned above, the AE
events in Region 1 for CFRP were the same as
that for epoxode resin. However for CFRP, it
happens at an initial stage of number of
cycles while for epoxide resin, the AE event
occurs after a certain of stress cycle. It is
then considered that the AE event in an initlal stage of Region 1 results from a damage
of interface between resin matrix and carbon
fiber due to the cyclic stress
and that Region 1 means theoprocess which such
a fatigue damage extends to the resin matrix.
This is coinCldent with the fractographic results for CFRP.
It is considered that for CFRP, the reSln
matrix transfers the load to a carbon fiber
which sustains an applied load. When the crack
caused by an interfacial decohesion would initlate in the resin matrix, the fiber plays a
role in a crack bridging. In Region 2, because
the fiber which is playing as a crack bridging
can be failed through the fatigue damage, a
few AE event of hlgh amplitude would sporadically happen. Such sporadic AE event was observed in Region 2 as shown in Fig.l0(b). Also,
this result agrees with the fractographic observation where many carbon fibers were perpendicularly failed to the load axis on the
fatigue fracture surface.
When the fatigue damage approaches a
critical value, the crack will start to propagate and then the reSln matrix and the carbon fiber will be failed. Such a fatigue damage process is Reion 3 in which many AE events
burstly happen. Therefore, for CFRP, the fa-

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1000000 00

Fig.13 Relation between AE cumulative event

count or AE energy and number of cycles
for epoxy, R=O, (Jo. =4. 5MPa
tigue strength in Stage(a) of S-N curve depends on the adhesion of interface between the
carbon fiber and the resin matrix. In Stage(c)
of S-N curve, the carbon fiber contributes to
the increase in fatigue strength because of
low applied loading. Stage(b) is the transition process from Stage(a) to Stage(c).
4. CONCLUSIONS
The fatigue strength for CFRP in which
coaltar pitch type carbon fiber were randomly
combined in epoxide resin with a fiber content
of about 33% has studied by means of acoustic
emission method and fractography. The conclusions obtained are as follows.
(1) For CFRP used in this study, the decrease
in fatigue strength due to stress cycle
was less than that for epoxy. The orientation of pitch type carbon fiber to epoxide
matrix contributed to reinforce the composite. The fatlgue strength decreased with
increasing stress ratio and showed an obvious mean stress dependence.
(2) On the fatigue fracture surface for CFRP,
there was a mirror like appearance in the
resin matrix. While, many carbon fibers
were failed through a cleavage pattern and
were perpendicularly to the tensile axis.
(3) The occurrence of AE events closely related to the fracture appearance and were divided into three regions according to the
AE cumulative event count. When the stress
amplitude decreased, Region 2 in which

152

t..

there are a few sporadic AE events related

to the failure of carbon fiber and it became greater.
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T.Fujii and M.Zako(1985); "Fracture and Mechanics for Composite Material", Jikkyo Press,
pp. 142.
G.Maiser, H.Ott, A.Protzner and B. Protz(1986)
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A.Poursartip M.F.Ashby and P.W.R.Beaumount(
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K.Suzuki, H.Nakanishi, M.Iwamoto, K.Kyou
K.Koike, M.Imura and E.Jinen(1987), "Fatigue
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M.Shiwa, S.Yuyama and T.Kishi(1986), "Acoustic
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T. Kunio ( 1982'):" "Re]a1Uiom, I!fetw.eelJ) T'empei:a1!1llJi"e'"
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Isono and T.Watal'llabe(,IgS2')" "'Sase and:Applieation of Acoustic ElDl:iissicon"', ClOrOD.a'" lI'P,.S6..
N.Sato, T.Kurauchi and O.Ka.migaito(1986), "
Detection of Damage in Composite Materials by
Thermo-Acoustic Emission Technique" Proc. of
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NDr. pp.620.

153