Influence of hygrothermal ageing on the novel infusible thermoplastic resin reinforced with quadriaxial non-crimp glass fabrics

Elium (R) is a novel liquid Methylmethacrylate thermoplastic (TP) matrix that can be cured at room temperature. Elium (R) resin provides the properties of TP polymer composites and is a competitive alternative to epoxy-based composites. In this work, a quadriaxial non-crimp (NC) glass fabric/Elium (R) based polymer composites were manufactured using vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding (VaRTM). The static mechanical properties of these composites were evaluated under the tensile and flexural loads. Further, interfacial properties like interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) and fracture toughness (Mode-I and Mode-II) were characterised. To study the influence of ageing on the mechanical properties of glass fabric/Elium (R) (GF/E) based composites, the test samples were aged in distilled water at a temperature of 60 degrees C for 60 days. The obtained mechanical properties were compared between dry samples (control) and post-water immersed (aged) samples. It was found that water ageing degraded the properties of tensile, flexural strength, ILSS and Mode-II toughness by 30%, 59%, 46%, 37%, respectively. On the contrary, Mode-I fracture toughness of aged samples was 90% higher, indicating significant fibre bridging due to ageing. The microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed significant failure as the degradation of fibre/matrix interface due to hygrothermal ageing. The overall performance of GF/E composites with infusible TP resin is sensitive to hygrothermal ageing.