5. Flexural fatigue

Bending tests on composite materials are widely used in industrial environments, thanks to their flexibility of application and the simple geometry of the specimens. Unlike tensile and compression tests, this type of testing requires no special specimen fixturing or heel bonding. What's more, flexural testing is often the only method available for assessing the properties of composites under specific or even aggressive environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, salt spray, etc.). What's more, this test requires much lower loads to failure than tensile and compression tests, enabling the use of testing machines and load cells with lower capacities. These observations explain the number of studies devoted to bending, both static and fatigue. But the analysis of this test remains complicated. While stress states are homogeneous in tension and compression, this is not the case for bending,...