Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Engineering (MSE)
Department
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Committee Chair
Vistasp M. Karbhari
Committee Member
William R. Wessels
Committee Member
Jeffery L. Evans
Subject(s)
Composite materials--Testing, Fibrous composites, Glass fibers--Testing, Epoxy resins
Abstract
Fiber reinforced polymer composites are increasingly being used for a variety of applications and wet-layup composites are a significant portion of this increasing use. Despite the extensive use of these composites there exists no generic method to determine the long term properties of wet-layup composites when exposed to water, sea water, and alkaline solutions. To begin answering these questions a glass-fiber and epoxy composite, and neat epoxy was subjected to temperature induced accelerated degradation. The resultant data was used with an Arrhenius time-temperature model to develop predictive equations for the mean values of the ultimate strength and the elastic modulus of the material. Additionally the Weibull distribution was fit to the data, and with the assumption that the Weibull shape parameter is a constant, the Weibull distribution can be extended to accompany the predicted mean values, allowing for the inclusion of a measure of dispersion in the prediction.
Recommended Citation
Farrington, Seth E., "Reliability based assessment of e-glass/epoxy FRP's under exposure to aqueous solutions" (2012). Theses. 1.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-theses/1