Long-Term Environmental Fatigue of Pultruded Glass-Fiber-Reinforced Composites

Published

October 12, 2021

Author(s)

Kate Liao, Carl R. Schultesiz, Donald L. Hunston

Abstract

Pultruded glass-fiber-reinforced vinyl ester composite coupons were subjected to four-point-bend fatigue in various environments to study long-term durability for infrastructure applications. Several groups of specimens were aged in water or in water solutions containing 5 % and 10 % mass fraction of salt for up to 6570 h. Both as-received and aged specimens were then cyclically tested in air or while immersed in water or in salt solution. For specimens cyclically loaded at or above 45 % of the average flexural strength of the dry coupons, no substantial difference in fatigue life was observed among all the specimen groups. For samples cyclically loaded at 30 % dry flexural strength, however, all specimens tested in air survived beyond 107 cycles while all those tested in water environments did not. It is found that long-term environmental fatigue behavior is not controlled by the quantity of water absorbed; rather, it is governed by a combination of both load and fluid environment. No difference in fatigue life was found for specimens aged in different fluid environments at room temperature prior to fatigue testing. Relative to these samples, however, a significant difference was seen for specimens aged in water at 75 C for 2400 h prior to cyclic test at load levels above 30 % of the dry flexural strength. Microscopic examination of the fatigue specimens revealed evidence of a degraded fiber/matrix interphase region in those specimens where environmental exposure caused premature failure so this is believed to be a controlling factor in the environmental performance of the glass composite.

Citation

International Journal of Fatigue

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

accelerated aging, bending fatigue, composites, fiber/matrix interphase, glass fiber, pultrusion, salt solution, vinyl ester, water

Citation

Liao, K. , Schultesiz, C. and Hunston, D. (2021), Long-Term Environmental Fatigue of Pultruded Glass-Fiber-Reinforced Composites, International Journal of Fatigue (Accessed February 16, 2025)