Fatigue of short fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composites

This chapter presents an overview of the fatigue behaviour of short fibre-reinforced composites. The focus is put onto short fibre-reinforced thermoplastics processed by injection moulding, as they represent the majority of the materials used worldwide in this class. The macroscopic behaviour is first addressed: S–N curves, cyclic behaviour, mean stress effect, interaction between creep and fatigue, effect of temperature and humidity. Then the effects of fibre orientation, notches, multiaxiality are presented and discussed. Finally, microscopic observations of fatigue damage by various experimental techniques are presented, with special emphasis on scanning electron microscope observations and microcomputed tomography, and discussed with respect to modelling techniques.