Print Email Facebook Twitter Hydrothermal ageing of glass/epoxy composites for wind turbine blades Title Hydrothermal ageing of glass/epoxy composites for wind turbine blades Author Rocha, I.B.C.M. Raijmaekers, S. Nijssen, R.P.L. Van der Meer, F.P. Faculty Civil Engineering and Geosciences Department Structural Engineering Date 2015-07-19 Abstract In this work, a glass/epoxy material system commonly applied in wind turbine design was used to evaluate damage processes brought by water ingression during service life. Composite short-beams and neat epoxy beams and dog-bones were conditioned by water immersion at 50º until saturation and tested both statically and in fatigue. By comparing results from mechanical tests with those from reference specimens, significant fibre-matrix interface damage was identified, with reductions of up to 34% on the static strength and fatigue life reduction of up to three orders of magnitude. On the other hand, neat epoxy specimens showed a lower degree of damage, with up to 20% lower moduli and strength properties. Microscopic observations of conditioned specimens point out to extensive debonding on composite specimens after immersion, while neat epoxy specimens show signs of colour changes possibly due to hydrolytic attack. Lastly, changes in the glass transition temperature of the resin due to water ingression are assessed through the DMA technique. From the results, apart from a Tg reduction brought by material degradation, additional relaxation peaks brought by phase changes in the absorbed water molecules were identified. Subject water ingressionglass/epoxy compositesmaterial damage To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9ea90666-c4a7-49ba-a832-ba07e2e1d703 Publisher ICCM Source ICCM 20: 20th International Conference on Composite Materials, Copenhage, Denmark, 19-24 July 2015 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type conference paper Rights (c) 2015 The Author(s) Files PDF 319930.pdf 5.61 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:9ea90666-c4a7-49ba-a832-ba07e2e1d703/datastream/OBJ/view