Elevated Temperature Aging of Glass Fiber Reinforced Vinyl Ester and Isophthalic Polyester Composites in Water, Salt Water, and Concrete Pore Solution.
Elevated Temperature Aging of Glass Fiber Reinforced
Vinyl Ester and Isophthalic Polyester Composites in
Water, Salt Water, and Concrete Pore Solution.
(191 K)
Chin, J. W.; Hughes, W. L.; Signor, A.
American Society for Composites, 16th Technical
Conference. Proceedings. September 9-12, 2001,
Blacksburg, VA, 1-12 pp, 2001.
Keywords:
composite materials; vinyl ester; polyester; water; salt
water; concretes; pore solution; accelerated aging;
isophthalic polyester; Arrhenius Model
Abstract:
In recent years, the use of fiber-reinforced vinyl ester
and isophthalic polyester (isopolyester) composites in
civil infrastructure has greatly increased, due to an
optimum combination of desirable properties,
processability, and ease of installation associated with
these materials. One obstacle hindering greater
acceptance of polymer composites in civil infrastructure
applications is the susceptibility of the polymer
matrices to degradation initiated by moisture,
temperature and corrosive chemical environments. The
objective of this study was to characterize chemical and
physical changes in glass-fiber reinforced vinyl ester
and isopolyester materials following exposure to water,
salt water and an artificial concrete pore solution.
Exposures were carried out at room temperature, 40 deg
C, 60 deg C and 80 deg C; glass transition temperature
and interlaminar shear strength were monitored as a
function of aging time and temperature. In general, more
rapid degradation in properties was observed in concrete
pore solution than either water or salt solution for
both polymers. A modified Arrhenius analysis was carried
out on the data to determine whether any observed
acceleration in degradation was valid over such a wide
temperature range. Arrhenius plots for isopolyester
generated by plotting log [time to reach 70% of original
strength] vs. [temperature]-1 could be fitted with
straight lines for water and salt solution, but not for
concrete pore solution. Arrhenius analyses carried out
on the vinyl ester data resulted in approximately
straight line fits for all three environments.
