Diffusion of water in glass fiber reinforced polymer composites at different temperatures

Abstract

This study examines the effects of temperature and fiber and matrix diffusivities on the diffusion of fluid in glass fiberreinforced polymer composites. Glass fiber-reinforced polymer thin plates were immersed in deionized water at two temperatures: room temperature and 50 C. During the diffusion process, the overall mass changes and dimension changes were recorded, which relate to the volumetric change and the through-the-thickness strain. Different constitutive models are considered in order to understand the diffusion of fluid through the glass fiber-reinforced polymer plates. The macroscopic models of this work, Fickian and Gurtin coupled deformation-diffusion, are first considered in order to describe the macroscopic diffusion behaviors. Two microscopic models that include fiber volume contents and diffusivities of the constituents (fiber and matrix) are then considered in order to gain fundamental insight into the effects of microstructural morphologies and constituents' diffusivities on the diffusion process in the glass fiber-reinforced polymer specimens.

Failure behavior of woven fiberglass composites under combined compressive and environmental loading

“…Temperature settings were monitored using an Omega temperature and humidity data logger, controlled using heat lamps and automatic lighting controllers. Muliana et al 35 reported for a similar composite material a water uptake of around 1% at full saturation after 100 days of exposure at 50 C. For the sample dimensions used in the current study (i.e. 5 mm  6 mm  6 mm) and a nominal density of 1860 kg/m 3 , a 1% water uptake corresponds to 3 mg increase in weight based on the aforementioned study.…”

Rice Husk Ash/Silicone Rubber-Based Binary Blended Geopolymer Coating Composite: Fire Retardant, Moisture Absorption, Optimize Composition, and Microstructural Analysis

“…The weight was then described as “dried” weight. During the moisture absorption test, the sample weight was recorded for a maximum of 5 days to reach equilibrium: Initially at every 2 h for the first 24 h, and subsequently followed at 4-h intervals for the next 24 h, then at every 6 h for the next 24 h, and every 24 h for the final 48 h. The percent mass change in each specimen is calculated in accordance to Equation (2), where M% is the percent mass change in the samples, M t is the current mass of the combined fluid and solid at time t, and M solid is the mass of solid measured before the test, at ambient conditions [ 46 ]. …”

Prediction of Orthotropic Hygroscopic Swelling of Fiber-Reinforced Composites from Isotropic Swelling of Matrix Polymer

“…Various studies have been performed on swelling of FRPs [10,13,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] and, more recently, on hygroscopic swelling in textile composites [26,27]. The works available in the literature have addressed several aspects of hygroscopic swelling in composites, from the nature of swelling in polymeric matrix [3,10,28,29], to the influence of swelling on the fluid diffusion in polymers [13,16,23,30,31], to the development of micromechanical models to predict transverse swelling [17,26,27].…”

“…Coran et al [21] and Daniels [22] analyzed swelling of reinforced rubbers by means of thermodynamic theory of elasticity, confirming an orthotropic swelling behaviour and relating the elastic constants to the swelling constants of the rubber composite. Fan et al [23] modelled a coupled diffusion and swelling of fiber-reinforced composites. Meng et al [25] developed a multiscale model for coupled moisture diffusion and swelling in FRPs by means of finite element (FE) analysis.…”