Superior durability of high-performance pultruded GFRP composites subjected to coupled environmental effect of hygrothermal aging and solar radiation

作者：Tianqiao Liu, Xinmiao Guo, Zhengfu Wang, Xingping Li, Peng Feng, Yejun Luo, Ke Tang · 发表于：Construction and Building Materials · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2025.142675 · 被引用次数：12 · 研究领域：Structural Behavior of Reinforced Concrete、Innovative concrete reinforcement materials、Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites

Environmental durability of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites must meet the serviceability requirement in practical applications. The main objective of this work is to provide and demonstrate a method for realizing superior durability of GFRP composites. In particular, high-performance pultruded glass fiber reinforced polymer (PGFRP) composites having longitudinal modulus about 62 GPa was adopted. This modulus is about the highest ever reported in available literature for glass-fiber composites. In this work, degradation mechanisms of composite materials subjected to hygrothermal aging and solar radiation (emphasizing UV radiation) were discussed. Accelerated aging tests (temperature = 20–80 °C, relative humidity = 98 %, and solar irradiance = 1200 W/m 2 ) along with DMA and SEM evaluations were conducted to evaluate the durability of GFRP composites. It is seen that the tensile, compressive and shear properties were reduced only by up to 10 %. Analytical study was carried out to predict the property retention rates of GFRP composites with service life of 50 years. As a result, good environmental durability was observed. This durability was realized by improving curing condition of resin matrix in manufacturing process, increasing fiber volume fraction, enhancing fiber-matrix interface, etc., and also, this approach was initially intended to enhance mechanical performance. Moreover, seven other GFRP composites reported by five studies and the GFRP composite add...