Fibre-reinforced polymer composites environmental conditioning

LCA of fibre-reinforced composite materials has helped to better characterise composite products, in terms of environmental performance, and compare them with other classes of materials. Generally, LCAs of bio-based polymer composites have shown favourable results in terms of environmental impacts and energy use compared to petroleum-based products (Corbiere-Nicolher et al., 2001 Domburg et al., 2004 Gonzalez-Garcia et al., 2010 Wool and Sun, 2005). However, calculation of these impacts always depends on the system and boundary conditions considered during the study. 

The next sections do not review the various durability studies available in the literature, since there are recent reviews by Karbhari (2007) and Benmokrane et al. (2006). Instead they assess the main environmental ageing mechanisms involved in the degradation of FRP components (especially polymer matrices, but also reinforcing fibres) under normal service conditions, as well as their consequences on the mechanical properties of the overall composite. The influence of creep and fatigue loading will not be discussed in this chapter. 

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