Stress corrosion of glass fibre reinforced polymers for infrastructure applications

摘要

Environmental stress corrosion is believed to be a major contributor to the deterioration of glass fibre reinforced polymers. Understanding the mechanisms of this deterioration is therefore very important for assessing the durability and damage tolerance predictions of composites using glass as the main reinforcement. A mechanistic model describing in a physical manner the different processes taking place during stress corrosion cracking is presented. The model is based both on well-established knowledge of the chemical behaviour of glass, and in particular that of glass flaws, and on more recent models of stress corrosion. These were combined with fracture mechanics, a shear lag model, simulation and a probability model for flaw size. The results of the present study, although limited to a rather idealized situation, are very encouraging. They suggest that, with only modest assumptions about material properties, it is possible to obtain mechanisms of GFRP breakdown, which corresponds to observed experimental behaviour