Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

1-1-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S. in Engineering Science

First Advisor

Ellen Lackey

Second Advisor

Amrita Mishra

School

University of Mississippi

Relational Format

dissertation/thesis

Abstract

Composite structures may experience different environments during their prolonged service life. These environments may include corrosive, acidic or both or many others that can adversely affect the mechanical properties of the structural composites. Various studies have been done on the environmental effects on the composites but only a few are on structural shaped pultruded composites. More specifically, none of the studies tell anything about the effects of corrosive media on the locations of the structural shaped pultruded composites coupon samples. Hence, this current study focused on two primary objectives, 1) the durability characterization of structural shaped pultruded composites after an extensive period of exposure (16,632 hours) with respect to their locations and 2) provide supportive data to develop a standard experimental procedure for corrosion testing of pultruded composites. Glass-fiber reinforced polyester and vinyl ester pultruded composites were examined in this present study. After 672 hours (shortterm exposure) and 16,632 hours (long-term exposure) of distilled water and bleach immersion, short-beam strength was determined. The results revealed that long-term exposure of corrosive media affect the coupon samples of all locations equally while the effects of short-term exposure on sample locations were different. This demonstrated the need for specifying where the samples should be taken from during the development of an experimental procedure for the short-term exposed pultruded samples.

Included in

Engineering Commons

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