Durability Assessment of Multiwalled Carbon-Nanotubes Modified Advanced Fibrous Polymeric Composite in Different Marine Environment

Abstract

Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composite is one of the most promising material system of 21st century due to high strength to weight ratio, non-corrosive nature, flexibility and easy fabrication. FRP has enormous demand for application in diversified fields like aerospace, submarines, underwater pipeline, automobiles, architectural components, satellites etc. Major dilemma is faced by researchers, when FRP composites are exposed to harsh and hostile environments. FRP composites are prone to degradation when exposed to humid environments, cryogenic environments,high temperature, different radiation environments such as UV and microwave, thermal spikes and shocks etc. Due to this, environmental degradation of FRP composite is a progressing area of research. The current experiment deals with ‘Durability assessment of carbon nano tubes (CNT) modified advanced fibrous polymeric composite in different marine environment’. The material system used were GFRP, GFRP+0.1wt.%CNT, GFRP+0.3wt.%CNT and GFRP+0.5wt.% CNT, which were exposed to different environmental conditions , 35°C water, 5°C water and hygrothermal conditioning. All the samples showed decrease in properties when exposed to moisture due to plasticization, but the degradation shown by GFRP+0.1%CNT was the least due to minimum absorption of water in the first two environmental conditioning and showed the best mechanical properties due to uniform dispersion and higher surface area. Hence, nano filler modification should be done judiciously to derive the best properties from FRP composites. If more wt % of CNT is used then it would result in agglomeration, formation of voids and provide sites for micro crack nucleation which will ultimately result in failure of composite.