Citation:
Giuseppe Dell’Anno and Rebecca Lees. Effect of water immersion on the interlaminar and flexural performance of low
cost liquid resin infused carbon fabric composites. Composites Part B: Engineering, Volume 43, Issue 3, April 2012, Pages 1368-1373.
Abstract:
This study investigates some potential benefits of using non-epoxy matrices in
carbon fibre composites, targeting specific marine and wind energy applications.
Water uptake during and after immersion for up to 28 days in deionised water at
40°C, and the effects of such conditioning on the interlaminar shear and
flexural performance of the composites with isophthalic polyester, vinyl ester
and urethane acrylate matrices were compared to those of equivalent composites
impregnated with three grades of epoxy resin. Results demonstrated that,
although the epoxy systems perform equally or better than the alternative resins
in the dry state, they are also more sensitive to property degradation due to
water ingress. The relatively lower water absorption and subsequent limited
reduction in performance of vinyl ester and urethane acrylate composites is
sufficiently promising to justify further study