The stress-rupture behavior of strands of an organic fiber impregnated with an epoxy matrix has been studied to evaluate the long-term performance of this class of composites. An increase in the applied stress of approximately 138 MN/m2 (20 ksi) reduces the life of the organic fiber/epoxy strands by a factor of 10. This rate of degradation is about one half that of the S-glass/epoxy composite under identical nonhostile environmental conditions. A three-parameter Weibull function can describe the stress-rupture behavior. A Weibull extrapolation of data from more than 400 tests implies that this material has a survival probability of 0.9 for ten years while sustaining an equivalent fiber stress of 2200 MN/m2 (320 ksi).
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