Evaluation of tension-compression and tension-tension fatigue life of woven fabric glass/epoxy laminate composites used in railway vehicle

In this study, the fatigue characteristics and life of two types of woven fabric glass /epoxy laminate composites with WR580 glass fiber for carbody structures and GEP224 glass fiber for bogie frames were evaluated and compared with those of conventional metallic materials. Additionally, the laminate composite for carbody structures was reinforced with carbon plies to investigate the improvement of fatigue life. A fatigue test was conducted for tension-tension and tension-compression load with a stress ratio, R of 0.1 and -1, and up to endurance limit of 10 7 with frequency of 5Hz. In tension-compression fatigue test, the anti-buckling jig was designed to prevent buckling of specimen induced by compressive load. The Goodman diagrams were introduced to evaluate the fatigue life of laminate composites. The test results showed that the fatigue life of the GEP224 woven fabric glass/epoxy laminate composite with the stacking sequence of warp direction had a good performance in comparison with that of SM490A used to existing metal bogie frame. Also, the fatigue performance of WR580 woven fabric glass/epoxy laminate composite with the reinforcement of woven fabric carbon /epoxy ply had shown a significant improvement than that of a bare specimen without reinforcement.