Effect of acid-thermal aging on flexural strength and modulus of unidirectional E-Glass/Vinyl ester composites

Polymeric composites are known as low weight, having an easy manufacturing process, electrically insulating, have a high magnitude of specific mechanical properties and their most important of all is to be corrosion resistant. To this end, this study investigated the effect of sulfuric acid immersion at different temperatures including 23℃ and 70℃ on the bending behavior of the unidirectional E-Glass/Vinyl ester laminated composites. The samples with [0]_9 stacking sequence were manufactured by the hand lay-up method. In addition, the three-point bending (3PB) test according to the ASTM standard was conducted to characterize the flexural strength and modulus of laminated composites before and after aging. The experimental data of flexural strength and modulus after various periods of aging, e.g. 0, 1, 2, 5 and 10 weeks, in conjunction with Arrhenius model were used to predict the long-time bending behavior of laminated composites. The experimental results show that specimens lose half of their strength after about 130 days and this duration will be about 220 days for the modulus

Keywords:

Accelerated tests , Aging , Sulfuric acid , E-Glass/Vinyl ester composite , Unidirectional polymeric composite.