LOW-COST TESTING PROCEDURES OF FRP COMPOSITES IN SEAWATER ENVIRONMENTS

摘要

Due to their good resistance under harsh environments and their long service lives, fiberreinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials are of particular interest for seawater structuressuch as piers, ship hulls, or deep-water applications. The performance of composites can varygreatly when they are exposed to an environment as harsh as seawater and testing must beconducted to verify each material's suitability for ocean applications under varying conditions.Some fixtures are available from major equipment providers to assist with testing materials inliquid environments; however, depending on the scale of the testing to be done, these may becost-prohibitive. Alternatives have been found for testing coupons in both bending and tensionby building in-house fixtures that fit on a standard universal testing machine. This paper presentsa steel water-containment flexural-testing fixture and a tension-testing fixture using a plasticsoda bottle and hardware store materials. Another implement was also built to provide elevatedpressure to samples in a liquid environment in order to accelerate immersion conditioning, withthe ability to also test at elevated temperatures. It is hoped that further durability testing throughstandardizing the proposed equipment will lead to expanded seawater or other liquidenvironmentapplications for composite materials.