Statistical Distribution of Fatigue Life of Composite Materials for Small Wind-Turbine Blades

This paper deals with several statistical distribution functions for the analysis of fatigue life data of composite laminates for small wind-turbine blades. A series of tensile tests was performed on triaxial glass/epoxy laminates for loading directions of 0 degrees, 45 degrees, and 90 degrees. Then, fatigue tests were carried out to determine the fatigue life at the aforementioned loading directions and the fatigue stresses at four levels. Two-parameter Weibull, three-parameter Weibull, normal, and log-normal distributions were used to fit the fatigue life data of the triaxial composite laminates. The three-parameter Weibull distribution most accurately described the fatigue life data measured experimentally for all the cases considered. Furthermore, the variation of fatigue life was simultaneously affected by the loading direction and fatigue stress level.