Compression creep rupture behavior of a glass/vinyl ester composite laminate subject to fire loading conditions

The growing use of polymer matrix composites in civil infrastructure, marine and military applications provides the impetus for developing mechanical models to describe their response under combined mechanical and fire loading. A viscoelastic stress analysis using classical lamination theory is conducted on an E-glass/vinyl ester composite. The model includes a characterization of the non-linear thermo-viscoelasticity and its inclusion into a compression strength failure criterion for the prediction of laminate failure under combined compressive load and temperature profile simulating fire exposure. By accounting for the viscoelastic non-linearity at Tg, the proposed model yields good predictions for lifetimes of the studied composite ([0/+45/90/−45/0]S).