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Dealing with composites in polymeric matrix, the pultruded ones are among the
more suitable for large production rates and volumes. For this reason, their use is
increasing also in structural applications in civil and mechanical engineering.
However, their use is still limited by the partial knowledge of their fatigue
behaviour; in many applications it is, indeed, required a duration of many millions
of cycles, while most of the data that can be found in literature refer to a
maximum number of cycles equal to 3 millions. In this paper a pultruded
composite used for manufacturing structural beams is considered and its
mechanical behaviour characterized by means of static and high-cycle fatigue
tests. The results allowed to determine the S-N curve of the material and to assess
the existence of a fatigue limit. Observations at the scanning electronic
microscope (SEM) allowed to evaluate the damage mechanisms involved in the
static and fatigue failure of the material.
1. Introduction
Pultrusion is one of the most attractive technological