Fiber Glass Design for Composites - Influence of Glass Composition on Properties and Performance

摘要

Fiber glass rovings are widely used as reinforcements in many structural composite applications including wind blades, pultruded profiles, and filament wound pipes and vessels for transportation and storage of corrosive fluids. Proper fiber glass product design and selection is necessary to meet application requirements for mechanical and chemical properties in terms of strength, modulus, and corrosion resistance. Experimental results will show that changes in glass composition can significantly affect mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of E-glass fiber rovings. However, the nature of the corrosive environment must be carefully considered since exposure to many fluids may not be significantly affected by E-glass composition variants. The effect of corrosive environments on glass fiber reinforced composites has been studied extensively over the past 30-plus years. In our laboratory direct exposure of glass fiber rovings to a wide range of fluids was used to demonstrate the effect of glass composition on corrosion resistance. This paper will provide an overview and summary of developments related to E-glass fiber compositions.