Influence of laminate thickness on composite durability for long term utilisation at intermediate temperature (100–150 °C)

To increase the utilisation of composite material, new domain of application should be investigated such as intermediate temperature (up to 150 °C) for long term utilisation. Under these conditions, oxidation could not be neglected. This paper investigates material durability with the shape ratio influence of sample on oxidation behaviour during ageing at isothermal temperature. Weight loss evolution is discussed according to different shape ratio. Evolution of mechanical properties is also investigated to compare the thickness influence on the evolution of properties with ageing time. The weight loss due to oxidation could be assimilated to a degraded material flux going out of the sample from the exposed surface (and edges). A first estimation gives a coefficient of 2.3 for the degraded material quantity going out of the sample per cm2 of laminate edges compared to cm2 of laminate surface. In fact we have 2.3 times more degraded material going out of edges per cm2 than going out of surface per cm2.