A novel model to predict the fatigue life of hybrid carbonnanofiber/chopped strand mat/epoxy composites based on energymethod

A novel model based on the energy method was developed in this research in order to predict the fatigue life ofhybrid carbon nanofiber/glass short fiber/epoxy composites. The established model is a combination of a micromechanics model and the energy approach. The developed model is capable of predicting fatigue life of hybridcarbon nanofiber/chopped strand mat/epoxy composites by means of chopped strand mat/epoxy composites results. The model was verified by applying it to different experimental data. Finally, the results obtained by the new energybased fatigue life model are in very good agreement with the experimental data of 0.25 wt.% carbon nanofiber/ chopped strand mat/epoxy hybrid nanocomposites.

Keywords:

Fatigue life , Energy method , Carbon nanofiber , Nanocomposites , Glass short fiber