Authors

Abstract

In present work tubular –shaped fiber reinforced composites were
manufactured by using two types of resins ( Epoxy and unsaturated polyester) and
separately reinforced with glass, carbon and kevlar-49 fibers (filament and woven
roving), hybrid reinforcement composites of these fibers were also prepared. The
fibers were wet wound on a mandrel using a purposely designed winding machine,
developed by modifying an ordinary lathe, in winding angle of 55° for filament.
Various liquids were allowed to diffuse into the composite samples, where all
composite samples were immersed in water, HCl (0.5N, IN) and NaOH (0.5N, 1N).
The exhibited behaviors were mainly explained in accordance to Fick’s –law.
However, there were few case of anomalous behavior observed.
The observed difference in diffusion rate for acidic and basic solutions
may be explained in terms of different permeability of OH- and H+ ions in the
composite samples. This permeability was also found to be affected by the
debonding process which might be initiated by the liquid penetration. Diffusion
coefficients were also deduced and their relatively higher values are indicative for
some damage mechanism taking place in the composite and not the pure matrix.
UP composite exhibited higher values than EP composite which suggest that higher
damage has taken place in UP-composite.

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