Fatigue behaviour of glass/epoxy laminates in the presence of voids

In the present work, glass/epoxy panels with stacking sequence [0/902]S and [0/452/0/−452]S were produced by vacuum resin infusion. Using different process parameters, which may lead to cost saving, also the presence of porosity was obtained in the laminates. Specimens were tested under uniaxial tensile fatigue loadings, monitoring the initiation and propagation of cracks in the off-axis plies. The performance of the material and the effect of porosity were evaluated in terms of life to crack initiation, crack growth rate, crack density evolution and stiffness degradation. A detrimental effect of the porosity was found even for a very low void content, highlighting the importance of properly accounting for their presence in the design of composite parts.