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Fatigue
Behavior of Composites
The S-N curve shows the performance of some uniaxial
fiber-reinforced composite materials and compares them to a 2024-T3 aluminum
alloy. All samples were tested in cyclic tension-tension with (smax - smin) = 0.1 and with the maximum stress indicated on the graph
for each life to failure. Compression testing shows a stress level decrease
of about a factor of two for the same fatigue life.
These tests suggest
that composites of various types can have tensile fatigue properties superior
to the metal light alloy. Kevlar-epoxy, Graphite-epoxy, and S-glass epoxy,
all perform better than the 2024-T3 aluminum alloy and are interesting bicycle
materials. E-glass fiber-epoxy matrix composites are of lower cost but
have a poorer performance compared to either the metal or the other composites.
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