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Fatigue and cyclic deformation behaviors of vinyl ester and its nanocomposite
with 0.5 wt% functionalized carbon nanofiber were obtained by performing
tension-tension cyclic tests at different constant stress amplitude levels. Strains
were predominantly elastic for both materials, even at high strain amplitudes.
There was a small decrease in the cyclic modulus of elasticity of both materials
with increasing fatigue cycles, possibly due to the breaking of some polymer
chains during the cycling process. Considerable scatter was observed in the
fatigue data because of the materials brittleness, necessitating the use of a large
number of tests and statistical analysis.