Τα σύνθετα υλικά χρησιμοποιούνται σε μία ευρεία γκάμα της παγκόσμιας βιομηχανίας, στην αεροναυπηγική, στις μεταφορές, στα αθλητικά είδη και πιο πρόσφατα στις υποδομές. Αναλόγως των εφαρμογών αξιοποιούνται και αντίστοιχης ποιότητας σύνθετα υλικά διότι το κύριο μέλημα είναι η μείωση του συνολικού κόστους της κατασκευής. Η μείωση του κόστους, προφανώς, δεν έρχεται από τα ίδια τα υλικά, αφού είναι πιο ακριβά από τα αντίστοιχα που χρησιμοποιούνται τώρα, αλλά από την αξιοποίηση τους σε ένα μακροχρόνιο σχέδιο. Για τους λόγους αυτούς γίνεται όλο ένα και μεγαλύτερη χρήση των σύνθετων υλικών. Παρόλα τα πλεονεκτήματα που παρουσιάζουν τα σύνθετα υλικά εμφανίζουν πολύ σοβαρά προβλήματα. Ένα κύριο πρόβλημα το οποίο αφορά την χρήση τους είναι ο προσδιορισμός της αντοχής τους όταν υποβάλλονται σε διάφορες καταπονήσεις. Παρατηρείται λοιπόν η μεγάλη ανάγκη που υπάρχει για την μελέτη των σύνθετων υλικών και για το λόγο αυτό υπάρχουν εξειδικευμένα εργαστήρια στα οποία μελετώνται οι μηχανικές ιδιότητες των σύνθετων υλικών. Όμως, πέραν των ενδογενών μηχανικών ιδιοτήτων που εμφανίζουν τα σύνθετα υλικά υπάρχουν και άλλοι παράγοντες που χρίζουν μελέτης όπως για παράδειγμα η επίδραση της θερμοκρασίας, της υγρασίας κ.α. Τα σύνθετα υλικά που αξιοποιούνται είναι με ενίσχυση συνεχών ινών και με μήτρα από πολυμερές σε ψευδοϊσότροπη "quasi-isotropic" διαστρωμάτωση. Τα εκάστοτε δοκίμια υφίστανται εναλλασσόμενη φόρτιση μέχρις ότου εμφανίσουν αστοχία. Για την διαδικασία της κόπωσης ορίζονται πειραματικά οι τιμές της συχνότητας ταλάντωσης και της μέγιστης εφαρμοζόμενης τάσης. Όλα τα δοκίμια, κατά την διάρκεια της κόπωσης, υφίστανται μόνο τάσεις εφελκυσμού. Η μελέτη της θερμοκρασίας πραγματοποιήθηκε μέσω παθητικής θερμογραφίας. Η παθητική θερμογραφία εξετάζει τα υλικά και τις δομές που σε φυσιολογικές συνθήκες παρουσιάζουν διαφορετική (συχνά υψηλότερη) θερμοκρασία από το περιβάλλον. Η παθητική θερμογραφία είναι ευρέως χρησιμοποιούμενη σε πλήθος εφαρμογών της βιομηχανίας, της προληπτικής συντήρησης, ιατρικής, δασικής πυρανίχνευσης, γεωργίας, βιολογίας, ανίχνευσης αερίων. Σε όλες αυτές τις εφαρμογές, εντοπίζονται ασυνήθιστες θερμοκρασίες σε σχέση με το περιβάλλον και υποδεικνύουν σημεία που πιθανόν χρήζουν προσοχής. Στην παρούσα εργασία έγινε χρήση μίας πειραματικής διάταξης που είναι σε θέση να προκαλεί καταπόνηση στα σύνθετα υλικά και με τη βοήθεια υπέρυθρης κάμερας κατέστη δυνατή η απόκτηση θερμικών εικόνων των σύνθετων υλικών κατά την διάρκεια της καταπόνησης τους. Οι εικόνες αυτές αναπαριστούν την χωρική κατανομή της θερμοκρασίας του δείγματος και όχι μόνο της επιφάνειας. Οι θερμικές εικόνες υπέστησαν ειδική επεξεργασία για την εξαγωγή χαρακτηριστικών με σκοπό να οδηγήσουν σε συμπεράσματα ικανά να ερμηνεύουν την συμπεριφορά της θερμοκρασίας. Τελικά, μέσω της μελέτης της συμπεριφοράς της θερμοκρασίας των σύνθετων υλικών υφιστάμενα κόπωση έγινε προσπάθεια για την πρόβλεψη και ανίχνευση αστοχιών σε αυτά τα υλικά. / Composite materials are used in a wide range of global industry, such as aeronautics, transportation, and more recently in infrastructure. Composites with different quality are utilized because the main concern is to reduce the total cost of construction. Cost reduction is obviously not coming from the raw materials, as they are more expensive than those used now, but by exploiting them in a long-standing plan. The technological evolution and market requirements have led to an increasing demand of composite materials. Despite the advantages of composite materials they exhibit very serious problems. A fundamental problem concerning the engineering uses of composite materials is the determination of their resistance to combined states of cyclic stress (fatigue loading). Therefore, composite materials are needed to be studied and for this reason there are specialized laboratories studying their mechanical properties. Beyond the intrinsic mechanical properties of composites materials there are also other factors that need to be studied, for example the effect of temperature, humidity etc. In this project the behavior of the temperature of composites in fatigue loading is studied. The composite materials that are utilized are fiber reinforced plastics (FPR) in "quasi-isotropic" lay-up. Each sample is going under tensile constant stress cycling until experiencing failure. For the process of fatigue loading, experimental values of the oscillation frequency and the maximum applied stress are defined. The study of the temperature of composite materials was held by passive thermography. Passive thermography tests materials and structures which are naturally at different (often higher) temperature than ambient temperature. Important applications of passive thermography are in production, predictive maintenance, medicine, fire forest detection, building thermal efficiency survey programs, road traffic monitoring, agriculture and biology, medicine, detection of gas (by mean of absorbing tracer gas) and in nondestructive testing (NDT). In all these applications, abnormal temperature profiles indicate a potential problem that needs to be taken care of. In this project an experimental setup was developed which is capable of a) causing specific fatigue loading to the samples and b) obtaining thermal images of them during their fatigue loading. These images represent the spatial distribution of the sample temperature, not just the temperature of their surface. Also, these thermal images were specially processed for feature extraction in order to lead to conclusions capable of interpreting the behavior of temperature. Eventually, an effort was made to anticipate and discover failures in composites through the study of the behavior of the temperature that they develop.

O presente trabalho, inicialmente, apresenta uma revisão a cerca de vários métodos de análise de fadiga e tolerância ao dano em materiais compósitos e, em particular, o conceito de elemento crítico e o método da resistência residual é estudado e aplicado à análise de materiais compósitos poliméricos, reforçados por fibras contínuas, sob cargas cíclicas. Casos de laminados com concentradores de tensão são também abordados, principalmente, devido ao crescente emprego de materiais compósitos. Diante do contexto apresentado, o presente trabalho buscou desenvolver uma ferramenta computacional, que fosse capaz de prever de forma consistente tanto a vida em fadiga de estruturas em material compósito como a resistência residual dessas estruturas sob a ação de carregamentos cíclicos. Dessa forma, um modelo baseado na resistência residual, que envolve integração numérica, é implementado em um programa computacional denominado SAFECom (Sistema de Análise de Fadiga de Estruturas em Compósito), o qual é aplicado a alguns estudos de casos. O SAFECom foi, então, avaliado, comparando resultados obtidos com dados da literatura. Verifica-se uma boa convergência entre os resultados nessa fase de avaliação. Por fim, são listadas possibilidades de aprimoramento do programa, que podem torná-lo aplicável a outros estudos de casos não abordados no presente trabalho, além da avaliação do mesmo através de ensaios experimentais. / This work firstly presents an overview about various methods of analysis of fatigue and damage tolerance of composite materials and, in particular, the concept of critical element and the method of residual strength are studied and applied to the analysis of polymer composites reinforced by continuous fibers under cyclic loading. Cases of laminates with stress concentrators are also addressed, mainly due to increasing use of composite materials. In this context, this work aimed to develop a computational tool that was able to consistently predict both the fatigue life of structures in composite material and the residual strength of these structures under the action of cyclic loads. Thus, a model based on residual strength, which involves numerical integration, is implemented in a computer program called SAFECom (System of Analysis of Fatigue for Composites), which is applied to some case studies. The SAFECom is evaluated by comparing results obtained from literature data. There is a good convergence between the results of this assessment. Finally, possibilities for improvement are listed on the program that can make it applicable to other case studies, which were not covered in this study, in addition to its evaluation by experimental tests.

O presente trabalho, inicialmente, apresenta uma revisão a cerca de vários métodos de análise de fadiga e tolerância ao dano em materiais compósitos e, em particular, o conceito de elemento crítico e o método da resistência residual é estudado e aplicado à análise de materiais compósitos poliméricos, reforçados por fibras contínuas, sob cargas cíclicas. Casos de laminados com concentradores de tensão são também abordados, principalmente, devido ao crescente emprego de materiais compósitos. Diante do contexto apresentado, o presente trabalho buscou desenvolver uma ferramenta computacional, que fosse capaz de prever de forma consistente tanto a vida em fadiga de estruturas em material compósito como a resistência residual dessas estruturas sob a ação de carregamentos cíclicos. Dessa forma, um modelo baseado na resistência residual, que envolve integração numérica, é implementado em um programa computacional denominado SAFECom (Sistema de Análise de Fadiga de Estruturas em Compósito), o qual é aplicado a alguns estudos de casos. O SAFECom foi, então, avaliado, comparando resultados obtidos com dados da literatura. Verifica-se uma boa convergência entre os resultados nessa fase de avaliação. Por fim, são listadas possibilidades de aprimoramento do programa, que podem torná-lo aplicável a outros estudos de casos não abordados no presente trabalho, além da avaliação do mesmo através de ensaios experimentais. / This work firstly presents an overview about various methods of analysis of fatigue and damage tolerance of composite materials and, in particular, the concept of critical element and the method of residual strength are studied and applied to the analysis of polymer composites reinforced by continuous fibers under cyclic loading. Cases of laminates with stress concentrators are also addressed, mainly due to increasing use of composite materials. In this context, this work aimed to develop a computational tool that was able to consistently predict both the fatigue life of structures in composite material and the residual strength of these structures under the action of cyclic loads. Thus, a model based on residual strength, which involves numerical integration, is implemented in a computer program called SAFECom (System of Analysis of Fatigue for Composites), which is applied to some case studies. The SAFECom is evaluated by comparing results obtained from literature data. There is a good convergence between the results of this assessment. Finally, possibilities for improvement are listed on the program that can make it applicable to other case studies, which were not covered in this study, in addition to its evaluation by experimental tests.