Composites Part B 109 (2017) 64e71

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Composites Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

Experimental and numerical investigation of the effects of stacking

sequence and stress ratio on fatigue damage of glass/epoxy
composites
Walid Roundi a, *, Abderrahim El Mahi b, Abdellah El Gharad a, Jean-Luc Rebie

re b
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Moroccan Laboratory of Innovation and Industrial Performance (LaMIPI), Higher School of Technical Education of
Rabat, (ENSET), Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco
b
Maine University, Acoustic Laboratory of Maine University (LAUM), CNRS UMR 6613, Avenue Olivier Messiaen, 72085 Le Mans Cedex 9, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In the present paper fatigue behavior of glass/epoxy composite materials under different stress ratios and
Received 20 June 2016 for various plies orientation angles has been established. Experimental and numerical analysis (Finite
Received in revised form Element Method) were performed on various specimens subjected to cyclic tensile tests in order to
21 September 2016
outline the influences of stress ratios and the stacking sequence ([02/902]s; [902/02]s; [03/90]s; [903/0]s)
Accepted 16 October 2016
Available online 20 October 2016
on glass/epoxy fatigue properties. Static analysis is done experimentally to identify the stress-strain
diagrams, strain to failure, Young's modulus and tensile strength for each stacking sequence. Compari-
son between experimental and numerical prediction show good agreement. The Results of this inves-
Keywords:
Composite
tigation can lead us to choose the most optimal stacking sequence for giving boundary conditions to
Fatigue achieve the maximum fatigue life.
Stress ratio © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Stacking sequence
Finite element method

1. Introduction
The increased demand for composites is mainly due to their
variant applications in several areas in which lightness, rigidity and
good resistance to damage are requested. Their use became more
and more important in a wide range of structural components
which must withstand various types of constant and variable
amplitude fatigue loads, such on the construction of several
frameworks in various areas (buildings, public works and
transportations).
The glass/epoxy material is one of the most used composite,
especially in aerospace and automotive applications, due to their
high mechanical performances and low specific weight comparing
to other materials. In that fact, engineers and research scientists are
required to reconsider fatigue loading as an important factor which
may lead to the fracture of this composite. Therefore, mechanical
properties of glass/epoxy composite were a subject of thorough and
extensive studies. However, it's more complex to characterize their
fatigue behavior comparing to metal materials due to their micro-
structural composition (anisotropy, heterogeneity, fiber/matrix
* Corresponding author.
interface properties). Many studies [1e3] shows that the fatigue
behavior of composite materials is mainly due to the stiffness
changes during cycles, which can be divided into three stages: the
first stage is characterized by a rapid decrease in stiffness and the
formation of ‘‘damage zones’’ with multiple microscopic crack.
After in the second stage the stiffness degradation became lower
and substantially linear in function of the number of cycles, more
serious types of damage appears such emergence and growth of
delamination, this stage lasts about 90% of the total life. Finally the
third stage is characterized by a high level of stiffness degradation
associated with a rapid development of all types of fatigue damage,
including fiber/matrix interface failure and fiber fracture leading to
an accelerated decline. Authors [4e9] have investigated the various
parameters (ply-drop configuration, number of plies dropped at
one location, stress ratios, laminate thickness, fabric type, loading
condition, fiber content) influencing the fatigue properties of
composite structures. Brillaud and El Mahi [10] show the significant
influence of stacking sequence on transverse ply cracking in com-
posite laminates subjected to cyclic and repeated fatigue tests. Th.
Johannesson [11] experimentally investigates the fatigue strain
limit of glass fiber/epoxy composite, in order to determine the in-
fluence of improved ductility of the matrix material on the strain
limits. F. Wu and Plumtree [12e14] have studied the damage

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2016.10.044
1359-8368/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 W. Roundi et al. / Composites Part B 109 (2017) 64e71 65

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the specimen dimensions used for static and fatigue tests (in mm).

evolution in a [±45]2S CFRP laminate under block loading condi-
tions and damage development in carbon fiber epoxy laminates
during fatigue tests.
In that reason the aim of this study is to highlight at first the
influence of the stacking sequence on the fatigue behavior of a
glass/epoxy composite submitted to cyclic tensile tests. Specimens
have been manufactured with different stacking sequences ([02/
902]s; [902/02]s; [03/90]s; [903/0]s), in order to observe the impact of
this geometric parameter in damage and crack development due to
fatigue. The second part of the experimental study will focus on the
description and characterization of effects of the applied stress
ratios on the glass/epoxy fatigue proprieties. In this way specimens
were submitted to cyclic loading under various stress ratios
(R ¼ 0.1; R ¼ 0.2; R ¼ 0.3; R ¼ 0.4; R ¼ 0.5). Afterward, a finite
element analysis was carried out to predict the fatigue behavior of
specimens under similar conditions used in the experimental part,
with the same stacking sequences and applied stress ratio values.
Numerical obtained results will be compared and validate with
experimental data.

Fig. 2. Schematic illustration of the four studied stacking sequences (in mm).
66 W. Roundi et al. / Composites Part B 109 (2017) 64e71

Table 1 Three to five specimens were tested for each test in order to check
Mechanical properties of Glass fiber. the validity of the results. The tests were carried out with a tensile
Glass fiber properties machine equipped with a 100 kN load cell. The strains in the tensile
Areal Tensile Poisson's Strain to Tensile
direction were measured by means of an extensometer with a
density strength ratio failure modulus gauge length of 50 mm. The static tests were performed with a
displacement rate of 1 mm/min. The fatigue tests were performed
300 g/m2 2500 0.25 4.8% 74 GPa
MPa using sinusoidal waveform with load control at a frequency of 10 Hz
for all the tests. Specimens were tested under various maximum
stress levels (smax). The applied stress ratio RF (ratio between the
Table 2 minimum and maximum applied stress: RF ¼ smin/smax) was varied
Mechanical properties of Epoxy resin. from 0.1 to 0.5 (R1 ¼ 0.1; R2 ¼ 0.2; R3 ¼ 0.3; R4 ¼ 0.4; R5 ¼ 0.5). All
the fatigue tests were carried out until the failure of specimens. The
Epoxy resin properties
results allow us to plot the Wo €hler curves for the different com-
Young's Modulus Tensile strength Flexural strength
posites combinations and the fatigue life under the various stress
2900 MPa 74 MPa 310 MPa ratios. Afterward, special interest was focused on the analysis of all
the obtained results to deduce the influence of these parameters on
the fatigue behavior and damage development on the tested
2. Material and manufacturing specimens.

The material considered in this work is a cross-ply laminated

composites which are produced in the laboratory (LAUM) using a
vacuum bag moulding technique. Composite laminates were pro-
duced by a manual lay-up process from E-glass fibres of weight
300 g m2 and epoxy resin of type SR1500/SD2505. They were
elaborated with following proportion: equal part of fibres and
epoxy resin. Composite plates were cured at room temperature at a
pressure of 30 kPa using a vacuum bagging technique. Before any
tests, the plates were left at room temperature for 2e3 weeks in
order to allow complete polymerization of the epoxy resin. The
specimens (Fig. 1) were cut using a diamond saw from plates of
300  300 mm2. The dimensions of the specimens are: L ¼ 210 mm,
w ¼ 20 mm and th ¼ 2.3 mm, where L, w and th are the length,
width and thickness respectively. The test specimens are always
made with 8 layers of glass fibres for the four proposed stacking
sequences which are: [02/902]s, [902/02]s, [03/90]s and [90/03]s
(Fig. 2). Table 1 and Table 2 show the mechanical properties of the
glass fibres/epoxy composite used during experimental and nu-
merical tests.
3. Experimental procedure
At room temperature, the samples of each stacking sequence
were subjected under uniaxial loading in static and fatigue ac-
cording to the standard test method ASTM D3039/D3039 M (Fig. 3).
4. Numerical analysis
In the second part, a numerical study was performed with a
finite element method in order to predict the evolution of the
mechanical properties and fatigue life of the glass/epoxy compos-
ites. Several geometrical models (3D models) for the four stacking
sequences were created and subjected to similar boundary condi-
tions used in the experimental analysis to ensure the validity of the
finite element analysis. Applying material (see Tables 1 and 2),
three-dimensional element meshes and boundary conditions cor-
responding to maximum loading were generated. Fatigue Analysis
has three main methods: strain life, stress life and fracture me-
chanics. In this article, the proposed fatigue study is the strain life
method: this approach is widely used, it's performed with the finite
elements analysis using a technique known as Rainflow counting
[15e17]. The literature offers a multitude of methods of counting
cycles; the Rainflow method is the most used in the field of fatigue.
This method defines a stress cycle as a closed hysteresis loop on the
stress-strain diagram i.e. converting the random loading to simple
cycles. The algorithm for this method was developed by Endo and
Matsuishi [18] and allows the application of Miner's rule and strain-
life approach (Eq. (1)) to compute fatigue damage on each cycle (see
Fig. 4). Note that the calculation is nonlinear and is solved by iter-
ative methods. Also note that 1 is the value used for the concen-
tration factor, assuming that the mesh is refined enough to capture

Fig. 3. Experimental setup.

 W. Roundi et al. / Composites Part B 109 (2017) 64e71 67

any stress concentration effects [19]. Dowling, Amzallag and

Colombia [20e23] show that Rainflow counting is one of the best
fatigue methods that lead to more precise results. Since the study of
Dowling [20], Rainflow counting is considered the method leading
to best approximation of service life. This method can be found
using different algorithms in the ASTM E 1049-85 standard as well
as AFNOR A03-406.
The Strain Life Relation requires 6 parameters to define the
strain-life material properties: four strain-life parameter properties
and the two cyclic stress-strain parameters. The equation relating
total strain amplitude εa and life (N) is as follows:

s0 f
εa ¼ ð2NÞb þ ε0 f ð2NÞc (1)
E
Where:

 s0 f is the Fatigue Strength Coefficient;

 E is the Young's Modulus;
Fig. 4. Strain-Life approach [24].  b is the Fatigue Strength Exponent, slope of elastic strain line
(Basquin's exponent);
0
 εf is the Fatigue Ductility Coefficient;

Fig. 5. Stress e Strain curves for the different stacking sequences: a) [02/902]s, b) [902/902]s, c) [03/90]s and d) [903/0]s.
 Fig. 6. Static properties: a) Tensile Strength, b) Young's Modulus.

€ hler curves for different stacking sequences (R ¼ 0.1): a) [02/902]s, b) [902/02]s, c) [03/90]s and d) [903/0]s.
Fig. 7. Wo
 W. Roundi et al. / Composites Part B 109 (2017) 64e71 69

Table 3 results), which exceeds the results obtained for the three others
Experimental results of the mean values of fatigue life for the four stacking se- sequences (see Fig. 7). The Gap increase when specimens are sub-
quences (R ¼ 0.1).
mitted to lower cyclic loading. It's also observed that specimens
Applied Stress 130 MPa 175 MPa 260 MPa 305 MPa 350 MPa with the stacking sequences [903/0]s have the lowest fatigue
Sequences strength among the four composites (Table 3).
At applied stresses above the fatigue limit, fracture of specimens
[02/902]s 106 8.7 104 2 103 8 102 5 102
[902/02]s 106 6.2 104 1.5 103 5 102 3 102 was observed. The proposed results show that with decreasing of
[03/90]s 106 2.6 105 1.3 104 8 103 4.3 103 the applied stress, Wo€hler curves obtained from experimental and
[903/0]s 4 103 4 102 0 0 0 numerical fatigue tests for different stacking sequences converge
and the percentage gap will be less. Three fatigue life behaviors
namely low-cycle, high-cycle and infinite life can be distinguished.
 c is the Fatigue Ductility Exponent, slope of the static strain line All predictions of the applied stress versus cycles to failure
(Coffin eManson's exponent). curves are rearranged into the form of Basquin's formula, as
expressed in Eq. (2). Where sa is the applied stress, A and b are
respectively the constant and the curve exponent, N is the number
5. Results and discussions of cycles (Basquin's equations are shown on the curves).

5.1. Static tests

The proposed results in Fig. 5 depict the typical tensile stress
versus strain curves obtained for the glass/epoxy composites under
static loading. It is clearly shown that the stacking sequences
configuration has a significant influence on the static behavior of
the tested composites. Different static properties are obtained for
each stacking sequence (strain to failure, tensile strength, and
Young's modulus). It can be observed that the tested specimens do
not fail immediately under maximum loads and keep some residual
strength until final failure. The glass/epoxy composite [03/90]s
exhibit a higher tensile strength (610 MPa) and around 2.66% for
the strain to failure. However, composite [903/0]s present the
lowest static properties (tensile strength about 205 MPa) among
the four stacking sequences (see Fig. 6).
The results of monotonic tests clearly confirm that the most
resistant laminate is the one with more plies (6 plies) in the loading
direction i.e. the [03/90]s; in contrast, the least resistant laminate is
[903/0]s with only 2 plies in 0 . For the other two laminates, the
results of the applied stress are similar although the strain of the
collapse is different.
5.2. Fatigue tests
According to the experimental and numerical data it is notable
that specimens with the stacking sequences [03/90]s have a sig-
nificant and more important lifespan. For instance, under an
applied stress equal to 390 MPa, fatigue life goes between 650 and
940 cycles and around 13.103 cycles under 270 MPa (experimental
sa ¼ A$Nb 2
Results of the influence of stress ratios on the fatigue behavior of
glass/epoxy composite demonstrate that the fatigue strength in-
crease with R values for all fiber orientation angles. However, fa-
tigue life decreases significantly as the stress ratio was lowered.
More lifespan was observed in specimens tested under a stress ratio
R ¼ 0.5, and the lower stiffness is perceived when R ¼ 0.1, which
indicate that specimens will be quickly broken. The predicted fa-
tigue behavior under all loading conditions by the finite element
analysis show good agreement with the experimental results,
considering complex behavior and the bigger scatter of composites.
The Fig. 8 show the result of life prediction of the composite [02/
902]s under smax ¼ 390 MPa, stress ratio R ¼ 0.1 and a frequency of
10Hz. The lowest lifespan was observed in the elements with red
color.
The fatigue life versus stress ratios level graph (Nr-R) is plotted
according to experimental and finite element analysis (see Fig. 9) to
show the significant difference of fatigue behavior at various stress
ratios values. Stiffness of the specimens was observed to reduce
under higher fatigue cycles, and damages in the form of delami-
nation and fiber rupture starts when specimens are near to the
rupture limit (see Fig. 10). The results of fatigue life obtained with
the finite element analysis are slightly higher than values achieved
from the experimental tests, this is due to the process used in the
FEM which ignores effects of residual stresses on the specimen's
behavior. The gap between the two approaches is less important
with increasing of the applied stress ratios.

Fig. 8. Fatigue life under R ¼ 0.1 and smax ¼ 390 MPa for [902/02]s composite.
70 W. Roundi et al. / Composites Part B 109 (2017) 64e71

Fig. 9. Lifetime vs Apllied stress ratios for different stacking sequences: a) [02/902] s, b) [902/02]s, c) [03/90]s and d) [903/0]s.

6. Conclusion
Fatigue tests under various stress ratio levels have been inves-
tigated. Fatigue behavior of different stacking sequences has been
compared. The Results show the significant effect of fiber orienta-
tion angle on the static and fatigue performances of glass/epoxy
composites. For structures under higher applied stress, it's more
adequate to use the [03/90]s fiber orientations to achieve the
maximum fatigue life. This study also highlights the strong influ-
ence of the stress ratio R on glass/epoxy lifetime, and put in light
the harmful impact of the stiffness degradation on fatigue strength.
Therefore, it's essential to choose the suitable glass/epoxy

Fig. 10. Damage evolution in the glass/epoxy specimens during fatigue tests.
 W. Roundi et al. / Composites Part B 109 (2017) 64e71 71

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