The fatigue performances of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites – A review

The fatigue loading is the proximate factor leading to the performances degradation of the Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites and structures, which detrimentally affects the service-life and damage tolerance. The present review paper provides the most relevant and up-to-date information on the fatigue of CFRP composites. In order to summarize the main influence factors of fatigue performance evolution, the fatigue damage mechanism and characterization method. Furthermore, the fatigue models are discussed in detail. The number of research results show that the materials constituents, service environments and cyclic loads have significant effect on the fatigue performances of CFRP composites. The nature of composites fatigue is the damage initiation and propagation process, and the fatigue damage mechanism of CFRP composites is complicated due to the inhomogeneous of material and the differences of material constituents, service conditions and cyclic loads, as well as the complex interactions among of them. Furthermore, the related fatigue models are developed based the macro and micro fatigue damage evolution. However, all of those models are phenomenon-based, it is necessary and challenging to establish theoretical prediction models based on the fatigue damage initiation and propagation for CFRP composites, to obtain the fatigue performances evaluation of CFRP in the complicated service environment, and then establish the fatigue design methods for CFRP composite materials and structural.