Effect of pre-load on diffusion characteristics of composite material

Abstract

The aim of this project is to study the long term effect of composite material’s properties when subjected to sea water environment under tensile stress. This project involved 3 processes, which are design, fabrication and experiment process. The design process is to design a test rig which can apply a tensile or compressive stress to the specimen and able to soak into the solution. The fabrication process consists of milling, cutting, drilling and threading process. For the experiment process, the carbon epoxy specimens were soaked in the salt water with and without the pre-load stress over 68 days. The weight gain of the specimen was measured and a dynamic mechanic analysis test was conducted to determine the viscoelastic properties of composite material with or without pre-load stress. The glass transition temperature of specimen with preloaded stress and storage modulus is slightly lower than the specimen without preloaded stress.