PSI - Issue 79

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 79 (2026) 155–160

© 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Abstract This study presents the results of fatigue tests on a composite material in which rubber is the matrix, while the reinforcement consists of a single layer of interwoven nylon cords arranged in a 0/90 o configuration. The tests were carried out using cyclic, symmetrical three-point bending of composite samples. This method, due to the negligible bending-induced stress, resulted in unidirectional cyclic tension in the sample. The loading was displacement controlled and performed in two variants: without pre-tension and with pre-tension of approximately 10%. The failure criterion was defined as the point at which the force amplitude dropped to 50% of its initial value. Analysis of the results showed that the fatigue process is well described by the fatigue characteristic in the form of maximum strain in the sample versus the number of cycles to failure. Although the strain-time profiles differed between the non-pre tensioned and pre-tensioned samples, the observed relationship proved to be universal. The application of pre-tension introduced a wider variety of mean values, enhancing the reliability of the obtained results. 28th International Conference on Fracture and Structural Integrity - 3rd Mediterranean Conference on Fracture and Structural Integrity The influence of pre-tension on the fatigue durability of rubber with a single reinforcement layer Karolina Głowacka a *, Roland Pawliczek a , Marko Nagode b , Jernej Klemenc b , Tadeusz Łagoda a a Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Opole University of Technology, St. Mikołajczyka 5, Opole, Poland b Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Kongresni trg 12, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Peer-review under responsibility of IGF28 - MedFract3 organizers Keywords: Composite materials, Reinforced rubber, Fatigue, Pre-tension

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: k.glowacka@po.edu.pl

2452-3216 © 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of IGF28 - MedFract3 organizers 10.1016/j.prostr.2025.12.319