In this study, woven E-glass/polyester composites are prepared with different equi-biaxially fabric prestressing
levels. Fatigue tests were carried out to assess the effect of fabric pretension on the life of the prestressed composite
under cyclic loading. The proposed prestressing method was implemented by applying an identical tension
load to the warp and fill bundles and maintaining it until the matrix has cured. The monotonic quasi-static tensile
tests were first conducted on the specimens with fabric prestressing level up to 100MPa to estimate the optimum
level of fabric prestressing. Tension–tension fatigue tests were then conducted to the samples with three different
cases of prestressing, such as non-prestressed (pristine), prestressed at 50 MPa (optimum) and prestressed at
100 MPa (over-prestressed). For the composite system used throughout this work, the fatigue life of the samples
prestressed at the optimum level was extended up to ~43%. The S–Nf relationships showed that the fabric
prestressing method could be used to extend the fatigue life of composites in the intermediate and low-stress regions.
The improvement in fatigue life due to fabric prestressing could decrease with increasing the off-axis fabric
orientation. Fabric prestressing method was not recommended when the normalized peak stress is higher than
~0.6.