Effects of tropical weather on the compression properties of pultruded gfrp composites

Abstract

Glass fibre reinforced polymer (gfrp) is a composite material, which consists of polyester thermosetting resin as matrix and glass fibres as reinforcement. Pultruded gfrp is mainly used as structural sections and as structural rehabilitation and repair material. It was observed that the current required technical and design data of pultruded gfrp sections is rather limited especially with regard to material properties and its performance in the tropical climate. This study was conducted experimentally to investigate the compression properties of pultruded gfrp under tropical climate. Special observations on the effects of the fibre orientations and stacking sequences in laminates were made. There were six different fibre orientations of gfrp plates of 6.35 mm nominal thickness with different stacking sequence selected for the test samples. The plates were fabricated by local manufacturer according to the commercial quality requirements. A total of 432 gfrp samples were tested for physical and compression properties. Measurements were taken at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months period of exposure to tropical weather. The statistical test data were analysed using weibull distribution. The test results showed that the properties of gfrp material were significantly affected due to the environmental agents. In general, surface degradation was significant after 12 months exposure. Surface roughness and discoloration on the top surface of the samples were also observed with the bottom surface not affected by the exposure at all. The effect on compression properties of the exposed gfrp samples was also significant, but varied with fibre quantity. Ultimately, the compression properties with respect to the period of exposure under tropical weather was formulated and proposed for design.