MECHANICAL ASSESSMENT OF MODIFIED-EPOXY BASED FIRE RETARDANT COMPOSITES

摘要

Polymer composites offer important advantages in application to the topside structures of shipsrnin both mechanical and environmental performance. Brominated vinyl esters as fire-retardantrnpolymers have been emphasized in order to replace metals with composites in shipboardrnapplications. However, inferiorities of brominated vinyl esters resin such as toxicity andrnpotentially carcinogenic at combustion, and also their compatibility with carbon fiber bring arnneed for a higher performance resin (i.e. epoxy) for the fire retardant composite. On the otherrnhand, structural performance of as a key issue to design a structural composite must be assessed.rnIn this research, four different epoxy-based resins were developed and used to develop firernretardant carbon/epoxy composites. The composites were processed by vacuum assisted resinrntransfer molding (VARTM). Fire retardancy and mechanical behavior of epoxy-based andrncontrol brominated vinyl esters fire retardant composites were evaluated and presented. Flexurernand short beam tests are conducted at ambient temperature were assessed. The experimentalrnresults showed, the modified epoxy composites exhibited higher both short beam strength andrnflexural strength, at ambient temperature, when compared to traditional brominated vinyl estersrnresin composite. Thus new generation of fire retardant composite with both enhanced mechanicalrnperformance and fire retardancy were presented and compared.