Fatigue crack growth behavior and fiber orientation of glass fiber reinforced polycarbonate polymer composites

The use of polymer-based composites has become increasingly common in the aeronautical and automotive industries. In this study, the fiber orientation of polymer composites was observed using microtoming techniques and the fatigue behavior of these composites was experimentally studied under mechanical loading. This involved the mechanical properties for parent and weld parts of polycarbonate (PC) composites in a tensile test and SEM. It was found that the tensile and hardness properties depended on the fiber orientation in the parent and weld parts of PC composites. Fatigue crack growth behavior depending on the fiber orientation was different in the parent and weld parts, according to a low cyclic-loading test.