Accelerated Tensile-Tensile Fatigue Testing of Long Fiber Thermoplastic Materials

Kryzsko Commons, Oak Rooms E&F

Fatigue characterization is one of the most time consuming and expensive tests that a material must undergo prior to adoption into critical industries and/or uses. Most fatigue testing is conducted by alternating between a low tensile load and a high tensile load until the material fails, which yields a cycle count to failure for a given loading scenario. Compiling a graph with multiple loading scenarios generates a failure threshold that is used to design a part for the number of loading cycles expected to witness during its service life. The studies presented attempted to determine testing methodology to reduce the required testing time from 3 weeks to 1 week by taking advantage of Cumulative Damage Theory. Several methods were examined, and it was concluded that there may be a path that could be used to generate such time savings.