Corrosion phenomena in glass fibres and glass fibre reinforced polymers

The study covers results of stress corrosion cracking in glass fibres and glass fibre reinforced resins. The corrosive environments clearly have an adverse effect on the fatigue properties of glass fibre reinforced resins. Superimposed on mechanically induced damage is a chemical damage component which becomes increasingly important at longer testing times. Since corrosive environments act primarily to reduce the fibre strength, their influence is controlled by diffusion processes through the matrix and by penetration of the aggressive substance into the material interior through microcracks. While the latter mechanism is especially important for fatigue loading conditions, it can be assumed that the degree of damage will generally depend upon several factors such as glass content, test temperature and the aggressivity of the chemical environment. There are limiting load values below which loaded composites are expected to have infinite life time, when subjected to a particular testing environment. That will be important to prevent the occurrence of stress corrosion cracking.