Accelerated environmental ageing study of polyester/glass fiber reinforced composites (GFRPCs)

Evaluation of the Effects of Fluids Upon the Flexural and Parallel-plate Loading Behavior of Glass Fiber Reinforced-vinyl Ester Resin Matrix Composite Pipes

“…The increase of the flexural modulus for the aged specimens in relation to the value of the as-received composite corroborates the hypothesis that the large variation of the fiber volume fraction and of the fiber spatial distribution is the most influential parameter governing the mechanical behavior of this composite. However, is worth saying that moduli increase after aging is also reported in the literature 12,23 . Mouzakis and coworkers 12 attributed the relative stiffening effect observed to a post-curing effect of the polyester matrix due to the effect of aging at a humid environment of the polyester/glass fiber reinforced composite they analyzed.…”

“…However, several other environments can be expected to cause degradation to polymers and polymer composites; these include salt water 7,8 , and other common fluids, like diesel and petrol [9][10][11] . Although many works had already treated the problem of the interaction of several fluids with polymers and their composites [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] , generalization of the observed behavior is not, in many instances, a simple task. This is due to the fact that very particular interactions can occur between a specific composite and also the specific fluid under analysis; this aspect is especially true when the performance of a commercial material is being analyzed.…”

Ultrasonic and thermal testing as a diagnostic tool for the evaluation of cumulative discontinuities of the polyester – glass pipe structure

“…The evaluation of the degradation level with reference to composite materials makes the basis to assess the usefulness of given construction for exploitation. The methods described in scientific works [2,12,18,19] cause the failure of the construction which is costly and may prove unjustified. Constant monitoring of the impact of degradation processes on every stage of their use, up to its failures, makes it possible to predict the time of construction safe usefulness.…”

“…These are both environmental factors (e.g temperature, microorganisms or UV radiation) [1,2,5,6,8,10,12] and fatigue ones (e.g. the value of tensions, frequency) [4,18,19].…”

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“…Studies of laminate aging have mainly been experimental [4,5]. Experiments have concentrated on defining aging influence on stiffness and strength.…”