Composites are used more and more as structural components in aerospace industry, automotive sector, wind energy applications,… As a consequence, the loads on those composite components are much higher than for secondary components, and can lead to fatigue damage in the composite part. Moreover, the fatigue behaviour of fibre-reinforced composites is much more complex than that of metals, because of the many different fibre/polymer combinations, the heterogeneous nature of the composite, the anisotropic behaviour of the composite and the multitude of damage mechanisms.
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