| Abstract: | The fatigue resistance of any material is the combined resistance to crack initiation and then to crack propagation. 1) In most of the cases, fillers act as strong cracks initiators. The Fatigue Crack Propagation can, under certain conditions, be improved (glass beads in epoxy) and this can be attributed to the crack front pinning mechanism. This mechanism is mainly governed by interparticle distances. 2) The number of particles per volume unit and thus the interparticles distance seems to be a key factor for endurance resistance. Thus, for a given number of particles per volume unit, the fatigue lifetimes are in good correlation with the FCP data. 3) A very rigid bounding between fillers and matrix is not necessarily good in terms of fatigue lifetime. A rubbery interphase can accommodate the deformation around the particle and thus can avoid a crack nucleation. |
