fatigue delamination behavior of gfrp composites under mixed-mode i/ii loading

Delamination is a severe threat to the wide use of composite laminates in primary structural applications. delamination grows under fatigue loading and leads to structural failure. very few studies exist on mixed-mode delamination on carbon fiber however glass fiber was not studied under mixed mode. the objective of this paper is to investigate fatigue delamination growth under mixed-mode loading in glass fiber reinforced polymer (gfrp). a mixed-mode bending fixture was developed and fabricated. fatigue delamination growth tests were performed for different mixed-mode loading using that fixture. with the help of a scanning electron microscope, micro examinations of the crack surface were carried out. the results showed a high growth rate for the case with more contribution of mode i. the fractographic investigation performed on the different samples showed the existence of mode-i and mode-ii features and broken fiber’s confirming fiber bridging during delamination growth. the fractographic features varied systematically with mode shift.