Monotonic and fatigue behaviour of notched glass fibre-reinforced polymer laminates immersed in seawater

Abstract

This paper studies the monotonic and fatigue behaviour of notched glass fibre-reinforced polymers after long-term exposure in seawater. Uniaxial quasi-static tensile tests and uniaxial stress-controlled cyclic tests were carried out for different immersion times, ranging from 0 days to 910 days, using rectangular cross-section specimens with a central hole. The geometric discontinuity was monitored, via digital image correlation, to better understand the damage accumulation process and the fracture mechanisms. A three-dimensional progressive damage model was also implemented, using the finite element method, to simulate the stress–strain response and the failure pattern. Fatigue life of the immersed laminates was predicted from the S-N curve of the dry laminates along with the three-dimensional progressive damage model. Overall, the proposed predictive approach captured well the detrimental effect of seawater on fatigue lifetime.