Investigation and modeling of the fatigue damage in natural fiber composites

The main objective of this preliminary investigation is to identify and characterize the damage evolution of angle ply ([±45] 16 ) flax-reinforced epoxy composites using an energy-based damage model combined with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) observations. The damage model’s parameters for the flax-reinforced epoxy composite were determined from quasi-static and fatigue tests. The preliminary results showed that the energy-based damage model is able predict accurately the damage rate in both longitudinal and transverse directions for loads. The mechanism of damage initiation in the flax/epoxy composites and the damage evolution, during each test, were monitored using SEM. A direct correlation between the microstructure of the flax-reinforced epoxy composites and the damage was obtained