Influence de la post-cuisson sur le comportement à long terme en fissuration sous tension dans l’eau de composites verre/vinylester

Abstract

The separated and coupled effects of an hydrothermal environment and a mechanical loading on a long term behaviour of glass–vinylester composites have been studied as a function of post-curing conditions. It appears that the lack of post-curing does not affect significantly neither the water absorption nor the residual mechanical properties after a simple hydrothermal aging (even after 1000 h). On the contrary, it has been shown that a lack of post-curing turns out to be highly prejudicious for the material when subjected to the coupled effects of a same hydrothermal aging and constant mechanical loads, even low ones: lifetimes are divided by 100 because of a modification of damage processes. Moreover, it is also proved that standard hydrothermal aging tests are unable to predict the materials behaviour under hydrothermomechanical conditions (i.e. environmental stress-cracking).