Short-Beam Shear Fatigue Behavior on Unidirectional GLARE: Mean Shear Stress Effect, Scatter, and Anisotropy

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of mean shear stress on short-beam shear fatigue in a GLARE 1-3/2 commercial fiber–metal laminate (FML). This study explores three shear stress ratios (Rτ 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5) and two material orientations (longitudinal and transversal) under constant amplitude fatigue. Different stress levels for each Rτ value were explored to obtain failures between 103 and 106 load cycles. The experimental results reveal anisotropy, with transversal specimens exhibiting lower performance and increased scatter. The mean shear stress effect is discussed herein, with insights into the critical role of mean shear of fatigue performance. Rτ 0.1 was the most severe condition and Rτ 0.5 was the least severe. The Rτ 0.3 condition produced steeper S-N curves, indicating that the combined effect of mean shear stress and shear stress amplitude led to a higher rate of damage accumulation. The fractographic analysis investigated the failure modes and confirmed the damage dominated by Mode II, supporting the test methodology employed.