Long-Term Deterioration of GFRP in Water and Moist Environment
Publication: Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 6, Issue 1
Abstract
This report examines the effects of water and moisture on the durability of pultruded glass-fiber-reinforced polymers (GFRP) with vinylester resin for applications in normal air conditions. Deterioration tests, including both immersion and atmosphere conditions at various temperatures, were conducted to investigate the deterioration characteristics of pultruded GFRP after being permeated by water. The main findings from the tests were that cracks appeared on the surface of the GFRP and that the weight of the materials decreased, which may be attributed in the surface treatment oil for the glass-fiber cloth being dissolved away. The bending strength of the GFRP was also found to be reduced. The rate of weight decrease and the reductions in bending strength were greater in a 60°C water-immersion condition compared to both a 60°C moist-atmosphere condition and a 40°C water-immersion condition. This difference is due to the fact that the glass fiber and matrix resin separated in water at 60°C. Although the matrix resin changed color in air at 60°C, becoming noticeably brown, no chemical changes were found by infrared spectra.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Busel, J. P. (1995). FRP composites in construction application—A profile in progress, SPI Composite Institute,
Chin, J. W., Nguyen, T., and Aouadi, K.(1997). “Effects of environmental exposure on fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) materials used in construction.” J. Compos. Technol. Res., 19(4), 205–213.
Gentry, T. R., Bank, L. C., Barkatt, A., and Prian, L.(1998). “Accelerated test methods to determine the long-term behavior of composite highway structures subject to environmental loading.” J. Compos. Technol. Res., 20(1), 38–50.
Harper, J. F., and Naeem, M. (1984). “The effect of temperature and humidity on glass fibre reinforced vinyl ester resin.” Proc., 14th Reinforced Plastics Congress, 173–176.
Lark, R. F., and Chamis, C. C. (1983). “Hygrothermomechanical evaluation of transverse filament tape epoxy/polyester fiberglass composites.” Proc., 38th Annual Conference, Reinforced Plastics/Composites Institute, Session 12-C, 1–15, Houston.
Meiarashi, S., Kishima, T., Nishizaki, I., and Sasaki, I. (1998). “Application of fiber reinforced plastics to construction structural materials. Volume 1: Examples of application of FRP as a primary structural material.” Cooperative Research Report No. 252, Public Works Research Institute, Ministry of Construction, Tsukuba, Japan.
Menges, G., and Gitschner, H. W. (1980). “Sorption behavior of glass-fiber reinforced composites and the influence of diffusing media on deformation and failure behavior.” Proc., 3rd International Conference on Composite Materials, 25–48, Paris, France.
Morii, T., et al. (1994). “Weight changes of the fibre/matrix interface in GRP panels immersed in hot water.” Compos. Sci. Technol., 50, 373–379.
Schutte, C. L., McDonough, W., Shioya, M., McAuliffe, M., and Greenwood, M.(1994). “Use of single-fibre fragmentation test to study environmental durability of interfaces/interphases between DGEBA/mPDA epoxy and glass fibre: The effect of moisture.” Composites, 25(7), 617–624.
Shen, C. H., and Springer, G. S.(1977). “Effect of moisture and temperature on the tensile strength of composite materials.” J. Compos. Mater., 11, 2–16.
Sridharan, S., Zureick, A.-H., and Muzzy, J. D. (1998). “Effect of hot-wet environments on E-glass/vinylester composites.” Proc., 56th Society of Plastics Engineering Annual Technical Conference, 56(2) 2255–2259.
Verghese, K. N. E., et al. (1999). “Influence of matrix chemistry on the short term hydrothermal aging of vinyl ester matrix and composites under both isothermal and thermal spiking conditions.” J. Compos. Mater., 33(20), 1918–1938.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 6 • Issue 1 • February 2002
Pages: 21 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 10, 2000
Accepted: Feb 27, 2001
Published online: Feb 1, 2002
Published in print: Feb 2002
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.