FATIGUE PERFORMANCE OF RESISTANCE-WELDED THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITE SKIN/STRINGER JOINTS

摘要

The objective of this work was to characterize the fatigue behaviour of resistancewelded thermoplastic composites skin/stringer joints. Skin/stringer specimens consisting of unidirectional and quasi-isotropic 16-ply APC-2/AS4 PEEK/carbon fibre composite were resistance-welded using a metal mesh heating element. Fatigue tests under threepoint bending were performed at various loads between 35% and 80% of the reference monotonic damage initiation load. Curves of the load amplitude versus the logarithm of the number of cycles to failure are presented. Failure of the unidirectional specimens occurred at the weld interface and failure of the quasi-isotropic specimens happened either in the skin laminate or at the weld interface.