A Study on Improvement of Fatigue Life for Woven Glass Fabric/Epoxy Laminate Composite Applied to Railway Vehicle

Abstract

In this study, the fatigue characteristics and life of woven glass fabric/epoxy laminate composites applied to railway vehicle were evaluated. The fatigue test was conducted by tension-tension load with stress ratio R of 0.1 and frequency of 5Hz. The material used to fatigue test was two types of woven glass fabric/epoxy laminate composite with and without the reinforcement of carbon/epoxy ply. Also, the fatigue life of woven glass fabric/epoxy laminate composite was compared with that of aluminum 6005 used to the car-body and under-frame structures of railway vehicle. The test results showed that the failure strength and life of woven glass fabric/epoxy laminate composite with the reinforcement of three carbon/epoxy plies had a remarkable improvement in comparison with that of bare specimen without reinforcement.