Durability of Glass Polymer Composites Subject to Stress Corrosion
Publication: Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 7, Issue 2
Abstract
Although it is well known that moisture ingress in glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP) enhances the phenomenon of stress corrosion cracking in the fibers, and that this reaction is likely to proceed more rapidly at the weakest sites in the glass fiber surface, a fundamental law that would permit the valid extrapolation of stress rupture curves to long service lives is yet to be developed. As a result, design guidelines for glass fiber reinforced polymers components have been developed mainly on a prescriptive rather than of a performance basis. Based on the well established knowledge on the chemical behavior of glass and, in particular, that of glass flaws, a model that combines fracture mechanics, shear lag theory, and a probability model for flaw size is developed to describe the behavior of GFRP composites. The predicted results, although limited to rather idealized situations, are very encouraging. They suggest that, with only modest assumptions about material properties, it is possible to obtain mechanisms of GFRP breakdown, which correspond with observed experimental behavior.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 7 • Issue 2 • May 2003
Pages: 109 - 117
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 14, 2001
Accepted: Feb 13, 2002
Published online: Apr 15, 2003
Published in print: May 2003
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