Development of a multi-fibre unit cell for use in modelling of fatigue of unidirectional composites

The fatigue behaviour of small scale composite unit cells consisting of seven fibres and surrounding matrix is developed for use in fatigue simulations. The predicted fatigue properties of these 7-fibre unit cells are compared with the fatigue properties of single glass fibres and of unidirectional composite dog–bone specimens. These predicted results provide stochastic fatigue characteristics that can be used as input for modelling the fatigue behaviour of larger composite structures.