Assessment of fatigue in continuous fiber reinforced polymer materials for automotive applications

Industrial (Scania) PhD student: Sara Eliasson
Start: 2018

Fiber reinforced polymers are becoming an increasingly vital part in load carrying structures and components today thanks to their superior structural advantage to other materials in terms of their strength-to-weight ratio. With the different types of fiber reinforced polymers the goals for increased lightweight design can be reached. Increasing the use of these materials in fatigue-induced environments the structural integrity and durability becomes of utmost importance to assess in an accurate manner. We need reliable and physical based methods for the long-term properties of these materials. In addition to this it is important to account for the material’s impact in all stages of its life from ”cradle to grave”, and one major drawback of polymer materials is the limitation of recycling.