Damage Mechanisms of Short Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyamide 6.6 Under Fatigue Loading (original) (raw)

In this paper, the state of the fiber-matrix interface and the matrix behavior of a short glass fiber reinforced polyamide (PA66-GF35) under fatigue loading were investigated. Significant differences were observed between plain and notched specimens. Comparing the morphology of the fracture surface at crack initiation site, the notched specimens show a lower inelastic matrix deformation and a higher degree of fiber-matrix adhesion. The difference in terms of matrix behavior is attributed to the failure mode of the specimens. In the plain specimens, the damage nucleation, observed in form of a temperature spot, is followed by the unstable propagation of the crack; instead, in the notched specimens, a stable crack propagation phase was observed.