Experimental investigation of acid environment influences on load‐bearing performance of pin‐connected continuous glass‐fiber‐reinforced polyphenylenesulfide composites

Abstract In this study we aimed to investigate the load‐bearing performance of pinned connections in corrosive environment. Experimental results are presented for the effect of acid environment on load‐bearing performance of pin‐connected continuous glass‐fiber‐reinforced polyphenylenesulfide composites. Chemical corrosion was also observed as an important environmental factor which affected the load‐bearing performance remarkably. Specimens were exposed to hydrochloric acid in order to find the durability of glass‐fiber‐reinforced plastics in hostile environments. An attempt is made to explain this phenomenon. The failure formation of material was affected by exposure time to HCl. Consequently, after the material has been exposed to acidic environment for 16 weeks, there were ∼93 and 95% performance decrease in the final failure load and first failure load, respectively. POLYM. COMPOS., 2010. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers