Experimental study on effect of resin matrix in basalt fiber reinforced polymer composites under static and fatigue loading

doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.118121

Construction and Building Materials

Volume 242, 10 May 2020, 118121

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.118121 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
Matrix played important roles in both of the static and fatigue for BFRP.
•
Same static but lower fatigue strength for vinyl ester based than epoxy based BFRP.
•
Static strength was lower with more ductile matrix based BFRP.
•
Long-term fatigue life increase with increase in fracture elongation of the resins.

Abstract

To reveal the effect of resin matrix on the behavior and damage mechanism of basalt fiber reinforced polymers (BFRPs), the static and fatigue properties of different resin matrixes based BFRP composites were experimentally investigated. Four types of resins were adopted in this paper. They were normal and toughened vinyl ester resins, and epoxy systems curing at room temperature and at elevated temperature. In parallel to the static and fatigue tests, the damage observation were conducted using in-situ scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation system embedded in the fatigue test equipment. The results showed that the resins played important roles in both of the static and fatigue behavior of BFRP composites. The static tensile strength of the normal vinyl ester resin based BFRP was similar to that of the BFRP with elevated temperature cured epoxy. However, the fatigue life of the former was significantly lower than that of the latter for more matrix cracking and fiber peeling occurred on the surface of the vinyl ester resin based BFRP. Although the static strength of the BFRP was lower with more ductile matrix like toughened vinyl ester or room temperature cured epoxy, the long-term fatigue strength level of BFRP increased with an increase in fracture elongation of the resins.

Introduction

During the last few decades, basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) has gotten increasing attentions in both industrial and academic world for its superior mechanical properties compared to glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) and less costs than carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. The creep and fatigue properties of BFRPs is higher than that of GFRP composites [6], [7]. BFRPs are promising materials for structures which are sensitive to fatigue loading [8], [9].

Although the mechanical properties of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials are mainly determined by fiber properties, the fatigue properties of the composite materials varied for different matrices [10], [11], [12], [13]. Several studies have investigated the effect of the resin on mechanical especially fatigue properties of FRP laminates. Rassmann et al.[14] used different resin systems and compared the mechanical and water absorption properties of kenaf fiber and glass fiber reinforced polyester, vinyl ester and epoxy laminates. The results showed that the various resins had differing effects on FRP strength and hence different failure modes. Colombo et al. [15] studied the static and fatigue properties of BFRP laminates with vinylester and epoxy matrices and found that the mechanical properties of basalt reinforced epoxy composites were superior to those of vinyl ester and the macroscale failure modes were more compact. The results of other studies investigating different resin toughening methods have also shown that the properties of the matrix have certain impacts on the fatigue behavior of FRPs, and that fatigue behavior is improved by using toughened resins [16], [17], [18], [19]. However, the resins used for FRP laminates are usually not suitable for pultruded products like BFRP tendons, cables or profiles. Limited studies can be found on the effect of resins on static/fatigue behavior and damage of pultruded products.

With the aim of optimizing resins used in BFRP materials that are employed in pultruded fatigue sensitive structural members, this study focuses on evaluating the effect of resins on the static/fatigue behavior and damage mechanism of BFRP composites. The strength, fatigue life, and micro damage mechanism of four different types of resin-based BFRP composites were clarified using advanced fatigue testing equipment combined with an in-situ scanning electron microscope (SEM). Except for the epoxy system curing at room temperature, the other resins studied in this work, the epoxy curing at elevated temperature, the normal vinyl ester and the toughened vinyl ester, were all suitable for pultruded products like BFRP tendons, cables or profiles. Use of the in-situ SEM enabled both the fracture surface and the evolution of micro damage to be studied.

Section snippets

Materials and specimens preparation

In this study, systems of continuous longitudinal basalt fibers reinforced composite were investigated based on basalt fibers treated with silane sizing obtained from Jiangsu Green Materials Valley New Material T&D Co., Ltd (GMV). The tensile strength, elastic modulus and fracture elongation of the basalt fiber provided by the manufacturer were 2400 MPa, 90 GPa and 2.2%, respectively. Four types of resin were applied. They were normal vinyl ester Corrolite 9102-70 from Reichhold Polymers

Static tensile properties

The results of static tests are shown in Table 3, where the static strengths of BFRP with different resin matrixes are seen to be all above 2300 MPa. These values are all higher than the strength of E-glass FRP sheets (1600–2300 MPa) but lower than the strength of carbon FRP sheets (3830–6600 MPa) [25], [26], [27]. The toughened vinyl matrix based composites had the lowest strength which was 84% of the highest strength achieved in normal vinyl ester based BFRPs. The static strength of BFRP

Conclusions

In this study, the effects of resin matrix on the static properties, fatigue behavior, and damage mode of BFRP were investigated with static and fatigue tests combined with in-situ SEM observation. Four different types of resin-based BFRP composites were applied in the test. They are normal and toughened vinyl ester resins, and epoxy systems curing at room temperature and at elevated temperature. The primary findings of this paper are summarized as follows:

1)
The vinyl resin-based BFRP has a

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Xing Zhao: Conceptualization, Data curation, Methodology, Investigation, Writing - original draft. Xin Wang: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Writing - review & editing, Supervision. Zhishen Wu: Conceptualization, Project administration, Writing - review & editing, Supervision. Jin Wu: Resources, Writing - review & editing, Supervision.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0703000), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51678139).

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View full text

Experimental study on effect of resin matrix in basalt fiber reinforced polymer composites under static and fatigue loading

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Materials and specimens preparation

Static tensile properties

Conclusions

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Declaration of Competing Interest

Acknowledgements

Bond durability of BFRP bars embedded in concrete under seawater conditions and the long-term bond strength prediction

Mater. Des.

Durability of basalt fibers and composites in corrosive environments

J. Compos. Mater.

Durability of BFRP and hybrid FRP sheets under freeze-thaw cycling

Creep behavior of basalt fiber reinforced polymer tendons for prestressing application

Mater. Des.

Durability of wet lay-up BFRP single-lap joints subjected to freeze–thaw cycling

Constr. Build. Mater.

Creep strain control by pretension for basalt fiber-reinforced polymer tendon in civil applications

Mater. Des.

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