The aim of this paper is to evaluate the Mode II interfacial fracture toughness and interfacial shear strength of Typha spp. fiber/PLLA and Typha spp. fiber/epoxy composite by using a double shear stress method with 3 fibers model composite. The surface condition of the fiber and crack propagation at the interface between the fiber and the matrix are observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Alkali treatment on Typha spp. fiber can make the fiber surface coarser, thus increasing the value of interfacial fracture toughness and interfacial shear strength. Typha spp. fiber/epoxy has a higher interfacial fracture value than that of Typha spp. fiber/PLLA. Interfacial fracture toughness on Typha spp. fiber/PLLA and Typha spp. fiber/epoxy composite model specimens were influenced by the matrix length, fiber spacing, fiber diameter and bonding area. Furthermore, the interfacial fracture toughness and the interfacial fracture shear stress of the composite model increased with the increasing duration of the surface treatment.

In this paper, a technique for improving the accuracy of a dissipated energy measurement based on the phase information—called the phase 2 f lock-in infrared method—is proposed. In the conventional 2 f lock-in infrared method, the dissipated energy is obtained as the double frequency component of the measured temperature change. In this work, a phase analysis of the double frequency component has been conducted. It is found that the double frequency component includes the influence of the energy dissipation and harmonic vibration of the fatigue testing machine, and the phase difference between the thermoelastic temperature change and the double frequency component is a specific value. The phase 2 f lock-in method utilizes a specific phase of the dissipated energy and is effective for removing the noise component such as the thermoelastic temperature change due to the harmonic vibration of fatigue testing machine. This method provides an improvement in the accuracy of the fatigue-limit estimate and the detection of future crack initiation points based on the dissipated energy.

Carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) is widely used for structural members of transportation vehicles such as automobile, aircraft, or spacecraft, utilizing its excellent specific strength and specific rigidity in contrast with the metal. Short carbon fiber composite materials are receiving a lot of attentions because of their excellent moldability and productivity, however they show complicated behaviors in fatigue fracture due to the random fibers orientation. In this study, thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) using an infrared thermography was applied to evaluate fatigue damage in short carbon fiber composites. The distribution of the thermoelastic temperature change was measured during the fatigue test, as well as the phase difference between the thermoelastic temperature change and applied loading signal. Evolution of fatigue damage was detected from the distribution of thermoelastic temperature change according to the thermoelastic damage analysis (TDA) procedure. It was also found that fatigue damage evolution was more clearly detected than before by the newly developed thermoelastic phase damage analysis (TPDA) in which damaged area was emphasized in the differential phase delay images utilizing the property that carbon fiber shows opposite phase thermoelastic temperature change.

Recently, a technique for rapidly determining a material’s fatigue limit by measuring energy dissipation using infrared thermography has received increasing interest. Measuring the energy dissipation of a material under fatigue loading allows the rapid determination of a stress level that empirically coincides with its fatigue limit. To clarify the physical implications of the rapid fatigue limit determination, the relationship between energy dissipation and fatigue damage initiation process was investigated. To discuss the fatigue damage initiation process at grain size scale, we performed high-spatial-resolution dissipated energy measurements on type 316L austenitic stainless steel, and observed the slip bands on the same side of the specimen. The preprocessing of dissipated energy measurement such as motion compensation and a smoothing filter was applied. It was found that the distribution of dissipated energy obtained by improved spatial resolution measurement pinpointed the location of fatigue crack initiation. Owing to the positive correlation between the magnitude of dissipated energy and number of slip bands, it was suggested that the dissipated energy was associated with the behavior of slip bands, with regions of high dissipated energy predicting the location of fatigue crack initiation.

When the piezoelectric film is glued on the surface of a cracked material subjected to mechanical load, change in electric potential distribution is observed on the surface of the film. Based on this phenomenon, the passive electric potential CT (computed tomography) method can be developed, which does not require electric current application for identifying cracks. This method may be applied to develop an intelligent structure with a function of self-monitoring of flaws and defects. For the crack identification from electric potential distribution, an inverse method based on the least residual method was applied, in which square sum of residuals are evaluated between the measured electric potential distributions and those computed by using the finite element method. Numerical simulations were carried out on identification of a through-thickness transverse crack. It was found that the location and size of the crack can be quantitatively identified by the proposed passive electric potential CT method.