Comparative study of the mode I and mode II delamination fatigue properties of z-pinned aircraft composites

This paper compares improvements to the mode I and mode II delamination fatigue resistance of an aerospace composite material achieved by z-pin reinforcement. Mode I (cyclic crack opening) and mode II (cyclic crack sliding) interlaminar fatigue tests were performed on a carbon fibre reinforced epoxy composite reinforced in the through-thickness direction with different volume contents and diameters of z-pins. Paris curves obtained from...