Investigation of Mechanical Performance and Life Prediction of ±45o Glass/Epoxy Composite laminates under Artificial Seawater Environment

Glass fibre reinforced polymers are good candidate materials for use in the structures of ocean energy devices such as tidal turbine blades due to their corrosion resistance, high strength and low cost. This work presents a research on the long-term performance of ±45o glass/epoxy specimens in an artificial seawater environment with 3.5% salinity. Accelerated tests were conducted at room temperature and 60 oC for 45 days to characterize the long-term effects of seawater on the mechanical properties of fibre-reinforced glass/epoxy composite laminates. Several mechanical tests including tensile and three-point bending tests have been done on the reference and aged standard samples to evaluate degradation rate, tensile strength, young’s modulus, flexural strength, secant and chord modulus of elasticity in the composite samples. The water uptake measurement was done to calculate the diffusivity based on Fick’s second law at elevated temperature. The long-term behavior of glass/epoxy samples under the service construction condition in the coast of Ireland was also predicted using Arrhenius degradation theory.

Keywords:

Aging Process , Composite , Seawater Immersion , Water Uptake .