The effects of different environmental conditions on the characteristics of fiber reinforced plates

Abstract EN

The failure of polymer matrix composite upon exposure to the environment conditions has been assessed in the present study.

Glass fabrics and unsaturated polyester resin were selected to fabricate 8-layer laminates cross ply [(0/90)8] arranged in symmetric and antisymmetric stacking sequence.

Environmental conditioning using Sea and Tap water with humidity exposure and Ultraviolet radiation was conducted to investigate the vibrations characteristics of symmetric and antisymmetric composite samples.

After exposure time to the conditions above for 500, 1000 and 2000 hr.

laminates were subjected to three point bending testing, in order to study their flexural properties (stiffness and strength) before and after these exposures.

Then a finite element analysis using the package program ANSYS (version 10) was used for the analysis of free vibration characteristics.

The object was to obtain the natural frequency for each case of environmental conditions at different exposure times.

The results showed that natural frequencies of cantilever laminate plates decreased with the increased exposure time for the different environmental conditions.