Author : P. Sampath Rao and M. Manzoor Husain

Fibre composites are being used in various applications like aerospace, military, marine boats and submarine. The reinforcement materials are highly hygroscopic; the matrix material provides protection to the reinforcement. When the edges of composite materials parts made of are exposed to environment, water molecules passes along the reinforcement. This leads damage to the interfacial bonding and affects the performance of the composite laminate. It is necessary to perform mechanical and environmental characterization to enhance their application spectrum. Therefore, the investigation has been carried out for the strength deterioration of uncoated and coated GFRP composite laminates under different environmental conditions and estimated the effect of coating on strength degradation of the material. From the experimental results and mathematical analysis painted GFRP laminates shows small changes in mechanical properties compared to unpainted GFRP laminates.

Keywords: The Resin transfer moulding; Glass fibre reinforced polymer; Three-point bending test; Flexural modulus; retention ratio.

Article published in International Conference on Advances in Mechanical Sciences 2014, Special Issue-2 (Feb 2014)