Effect of water immersion on the interlaminar and flexural performance of lowcost liquid resin infused carbon fabric composites

摘要

This study investigates some potential benefits of using non-epoxy matrices incarbon fibre composites, targeting specific marine and wind energy applications.Water uptake during and after immersion for up to 28 days in deionised water at40°C, and the effects of such conditioning on the interlaminar shear andflexural performance of the composites with isophthalic polyester, vinyl esterand urethane acrylate matrices were compared to those of equivalent compositesimpregnated with three grades of epoxy resin. Results demonstrated that,although the epoxy systems perform equally or better than the alternative resinsin the dry state, they are also more sensitive to property degradation due towater ingress. The relatively lower water absorption and subsequent limitedreduction in performance of vinyl ester and urethane acrylate composites issufficiently promising to justify further study