Gamma-ray irradiation effects on interlaminar tearing strength of epoxy-based FRP

Radiochemical ageing of an amine cured epoxy network. Part I: change of physical properties

“…(d) Most of the time, radiochemical ageing tries are performed directly on composites of industrial interest and ageing effects are judged from mechanical tests [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] which gives information directly usable in practice, but generally difficult to interpret in terms of mechanisms. As a matter of fact, the following difficulties are generally found: (i) analytical difficulties due to the presence of fibres and to the matrix insolubility; (ii) lack of theoretical knowledge on structure-property relationships for thermosets [18]; (iii) possible effects of radiochemically induced changes in the matrix-fibre interphase on the mechanical behaviour [16,17], and (iv) the wide variety of compositions and structural states (degree of cure, presence of structural irregularities due to side reactions during cure, thermodynamical state of the matrix linked to its thermomechanical story) increase again the complexity of the problem making difficult, or even impossible, the synthesis of the results.…”

Moisture and gamma‐ray irradiation effects on the mechanical properties of carbon fibre–reinforced plastics

“…The fracture through the resin is attributed to the degradation of the matrix resin, which is revealed by detection of voids in the fracture surface(Figs 7 and 8). The voids in the resin are formed by coalescence of the gas that evolved by the interaction between resin and γ‐rays (Nishiura et al ., 1990).…”