Moisture Absorption Evolution of Gfrp Laminates Subjected To Different Environmental Conditions

Abstract

Fibre composites are being used in various applications from aerospace, military, marine boats and submarine to renewable energy generation. Higher energy demands across the developed and growing world for the usage and replacement of conventional materials with polymer composite materials for engineering applications which is always questioned by the end user, unless the research oriented reliable supporting certification is made available. The reinforcement materials are highly hygroscopic, the matrix material provides protection to the reinforcement. When the parts made of composite materials are exposed to environment, water molecules travel along the reinforcement and cause damage to the interfacial bonding, further the performance of the composite laminate get effected. In this scenario, the investigation related to this aspect requires quantitative assessment which is carried out with accelerated simulation of the real time situation to provide a scope to chacterization of Glass fibre reinforced polymer composite (GFRP) laminates subjected to variable environmental conditions. This investigation was to study the effect on weight gain and mechanical property of GFRP laminate subjected to different environmental conditions. The test results reviled that remarkable reduction in tensile property and moisture absorption for samples in water absorbed more moisture than NaOH and salt water. Keywords: Glass fibre reinforced polymer composite (GFRP), Resin transfer moulding(RTM), Moisture absorption, tensile modulus and Environmental conditions.