Mechanical Properties of E-Glass/Vinyl Ester Composite Fabricated by Vartm

摘要

This paper investigates the mechanical properties of E-glass/vinyl ester composites fabricated using vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM). Five different glass fiber/fabric and lay-up configurations were studied. The mechanical properties of interests in this study were tensile, compressive, and shear properties of these composites. The effects of environmental aging was examined and correlated with the resulting mechanical properties using statistical analysis. The failure mechanisms under different loading conditions were identified. The results indicated that the general properties of these composites were comparable to similar glass fiber/vinyl ester composites fabricated by conventional processes. In addition, the composites retained most of its properties when subjected to short-term hygrothermal conditioning. As a consequence, low cost high performance composites were achieved through the use of E-glass fiber/fabric reinforcement and VARTM process.