A comparative study on the effect of hot/wet and hot/dry aging environments on the degradation of filament winded composites

Abstract

Predicting the long-term response of polymer composite materials is a continuous challenge to the composite industry. The service aging of structural composites has different effects on composites’ physicochemical behavior manifested as changes in the mechanical properties. This work presents the effects of hot/wet and hot/dry accelerated aging conditions on the interlaminar shear properties of vinyl-ester glass fiber coupons made with filament winding. The test coupons were aged for 224 days, removed and tested after every 28, 56, 112, and 224 days. It was observed that the response of composite coupons is different for the hot/wet and hot/dry aging environments for same duration of aging. This is attributed to the time-temperature-environment coupling during the aging regime. The overall response of the composite behavior is then represented via retention curves and degradation maps that can help correlate the results for both hot/wet and hot/dry aging environment as a function of exposure times and temperatures. The findings of the study thus provide an insight on the dependence of matrix-dominated properties of composite. The results can be taken into account when designing structure made from vinyl-ester glass fiber filament winded composite which foresee aging in hot/wet and hot/dry conditions.