Glass-fibre reinforced plastics composites

Kister G, Ralph B, Fernando GF. Damage detection in glass fibre-reinforced plastic composites using self-sensing E-glass fibres. Smart Mater Stmct 2004 13(5) 1166—75. http //dx.doi.Org/10.1088/0964-1726/13/5/021. 

Carmakers started advanced developments on door panels, headliners, package trays, dashboards, and trunk liners, based on natural fibre composites with a thermoplastic or thermoset matrix, challenging mainly glass fibre reinforced plastic composites. 

Jones, F.R., Interfacial aspects of glass fibre reinforced plastics. In Jones, F.R. (Ed.), Interfacial Phenomena in Composite Materials. Butterworths, London, 1989, pp. 25-32. Chaudhury, M.K., Gentle, T.M. and Plueddemann, E., Adhesion mechanism of poly(vinyl chloride) to silane primed metal surfaces. J. Adhes. Sci. Technol, 1(1), 29-38 (1987). Gellman, A.J., Naasz, B.M., Schmidt, R.G., Chaudhury, M.K, and Gentle, T.M., Secondary neutral mass spectrometry studies of germanium-silane coupling agent-polymer interphases. J. Adhes. Sci. Technol., 4(7), 597-601 (1990). 

Recycling of glass fibre-reinforced plastics is reviewed, with special emphasis on remelting of thermoplastic composites, mechanical recycling of thermoset composites, depolymerisation and dissolution of thermosets and thermoplastics, closed loop recycling of glass, and the use of glass as a mechanical compatibiliser. 32 refs. 

Man-made composites fall into three broad classes, depending on whether the main part of the composite, the matrix, is a polymer, a metal or a ceramic. Often, but not always, the composite combines materials from two classes, as in glass-fibre-reinforced plastics. However, the most widely used composite material, concrete, is a ceramic -ceramic composite. The most important classes of artificial composite are described below. The mechanical properties of composites are discussed in Section 10.4. Biological composites are very varied and will not be considered here. 

The creep and fatigue behaviour for natural fibre-reinforced plastics is less weU understood than for glass fibre-reinforced plastics because of the lack of systematic and detailed information. Limited information is currently available oti the effects on the fatigue behaviour of natural fibre-reinforced plastics of different composite parameters such as fibre type, the quality of fibre-matrix adhesion and fibre properties and their content. 

The properties of glass-fibre reinforced plastics, like those of all Composite materiais, are dependent on the adhesion between the different phases see Fibre composites -introduction. 

Figure 6.10b SEM photographs of the fracture surfaces of epoxy/HBP blend (15 wt% HBP) in glass fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) form. Reprinted with permission from D. Ratna, Composites A, 2008, 39, 462. 2008, Elsevier...

Window frames and doors PVC, foamed PVC (wood substitute), ABS (coextruded with vinyl modified ASA or polyolefins modified styrene acrylonitrile copolymer (SAN) -glass-fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP), composite based, ABS (thermoformed panels for high quality doors and window profiles)... 

Asokan, P., Osmani, M., Price, A.D.F., 2009. Assessing the recycling potential of glass fibre reinforced plastic waste in concrete and cement composites. Journal of Cleaner Production, 17, pp. 821-829. 

Polyurethane adhesives currently used to bond most thermosets, including glass fibre reinforced plastics (GRP), sheet moulding compound (SMC), glass fibre reinforced epoxy (GRE), and thermoplastic composites including ABS, PVC, acrylics, polycarbonates, etc., are pre sented in Table 20. 

Various methods have been developed for the production of GRC components. These methods have mostly been adapted from the glass fibre reinforced plastics industry, with proper modifications to adjust for the special nature of the cementitious matrix. To obtain a product of an adequate quality the mix composition should be carefully controlled, to be compatible with the production process, while at the same time providing the needed physical and mechanical properties in the hardened composite. Thus, the properties of GRC composites vary over a wide range, and are a function of a complex combination of the production process and the mix composition. A detailed discussion of the design and production of GRC components is beyond the scope of this chapter. These topics are covered in various publications and guidelines [31-37] and only some essential points will be discussed in Section 8.7 and Chapter 14. 

If concrete removal is not required or supplementary reinforcing bars cannot be used, external reinforcement can be applied. For instance, steel bars may be encased in a shotcrete layer or steel plates may be bonded onto the concrete surface. Recently, the use of steel plates has been substituted by fibre-reinforced plastics (F. R.P.), that are composite materials with glass, aramide or carbon fibres embedded in a polymeric matrix (usually an epoxy system). F. R.P. are available in the form of laminates or sheets that are bonded to the concrete surface using an epoxy adhesive [11]. They are typically used to improve the flexural and shear strength or to provide confinement to concrete subjected to compression. The... 

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