Influence of Thickness on Water Absorption and Tensile Strength of BFRP Laminates in Water or Alkaline Solution and a Thickness-Dependent Accelerated Ageing Method for BFRP Laminates

Abstract

This paper first presented an experimental study on water absorption and tensile properties of basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) laminates with different specimen thicknesses (i.e., 1, 2, and 4 mm) subjected to 60 °C deionized water or alkaline solution for an ageing time up to 180 days. The degradation mechanism of BFRP laminates in solution immersion was also explored combined with micro-morphology analysis by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). The test results indicated that the water absorption and tensile properties of BFRP laminates were dramatically influenced by specimen thickness. When the BFRP laminates with different thicknesses were immersed in the solution for the same ageing time, the water absorption of the specimens decreased firstly before reaching their peak water absorption and then increased in the later stage with the increase of specimen thickness, while the tensile strength retention sustaining increased as specimen thickness increased. The reason is that the thinner the specimen, the more severe the degradation. In this study, a new accelerated ageing method was proposed to predict the long-term water absorption and tensile strength of BFRP laminates. The accelerated factor of the proposed method was determined based on the specimen thickness. The proposed method was verified by test results with a good accuracy, indicating that the method could be used to predict long-term water absorption and tensile strength retention of BFRP laminates by considering specimen thickness in accelerating tests.