Development of a New Method for Characterize Resistance to Cyclic Tensile Load in Mono and Hybrid Composites

Abstract

The objective of our study was to investigate and describe the durability of mono and hybrid composite materials reinforced with various fabrics (namely, glass, carbon, and basalt) and an epoxy resin matrix against repetitive loads, with a particular focus on their potential use in wind turbine blades. The mechanical properties of these materials were evaluated through repeated tensile tests involving high deflection and low cycle numbers. A new approach was introduced for characterizing and comparing the performance of glass, carbon, and basalt fiber reinforced epoxy composites. Our results led to the development of a novel model to evaluate a new mechanical property, the asymptotic modulus, which can be used to assess the resistance of composite materials to multi-cycle tensile loads in a faster and simpler manner. Differences between the measured and by our model predicted values were low, the values of determination coefficient were higher than 94%.