The material used in vehicle parts could significantly affect the vehicle efficiency. Fibreglass reinforced composites are among the materials that can be used to manufacture the components due to their excellent lightweight properties. Composite structures may undergo fatigue failure when subjected to a certain number of cyclic loading, which normally occurs below the ultimate strength of the material. However, studies on this material's behaviour remain lacking, including on its integrity under fatigue loading. This paper aims to emphasize a study on the effect of fibre orientation on fatigue strength of fibreglass reinforced composites (FGRC), which are [±45°] and [0/90°]. The composite is fabricated from unidirectional glass fibre and epoxy resin using a hand lay-up technique. The experimental test is carried out at room temperature according to ASTM D3039 for tensile test at rate 5mm/min and ASTM D3479 for fatigue test at R=0.1 subjected to constant amplitude loadings. The results were presented in the form of S-N curves, showing that [0/90°] orientation has a higher fatigue strength as a function of fibre orientation. The results show that the mechanical properties and fatigue behaviour were significantly affected by the fibre orientation of the FGRC.

This document contains the formatting information for the papers presented at the International conference on “4th International Conference on Recent Advances in Automotive Engineering & Mobility Research (ReCAR IV)”. The conference would be held at Hotel Bangi-Putrajaya during August 8-10, 2017. Fibreglass composites are one of the materials that can be used in manufacturing of the vehicles part due to their excellent lightweight properties. Composite structures may undergone the fatigue failure when subjected to a certain numbers of cyclic loading, which is normally occurs below the ultimate strength of material. However, there still lack of studies on the effect of fibre orientations on the fatigue strength of glass fibre reinforced composites (GFRC). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine which orientation would have the highest fatigue strength. The fibre materials used in this study is unidirectional glass fibre with [0/90]°, [ ±45]° orientation and chopped strand mat (CSM). The composite is fabricated from glass fibre and polyester resin using a hand lay-up technique according to ASTM D3039 for tensile test and ASTM D3479 for fatigue test. The results were presented in the form of S-N curve. The results show that the mechanical properties and fatigue behavior were significantly affected by the fibre orientation of the GFRC