Bending Fatigue Behavior of Smart Glass-fiber Reinforced Vinylester Composite Materials

In recent years, glass-fiber reinforced composite materials are more and more used in structural applications. Their mechanical properties: low density, high strength and high chemical corrosionresistance offer an interesting alternative solution to metallic or concrete material. The pultrusion is a composite material processing technique that is penetrating the civil engineering market since the beginning of the 90’s. It is a continuous process well adapted to mass production of linearly shaped profiles. Moreover, many research on the use of pultruded structural shapes for civil engineering building and bridge applications have shown the undeniable potential for the use of these products (Bakis et al., 2002).