Sea water effect on pinned-joint glass fibre composite materials

The effect of sea water on the bearing strength behavior of the woven glass fibre composite has been investigated experimentally. The ratio of the edge distance to the pin diameter (E/D), and the ratio of the specimen width to the pin diameter (W/D) were systematically varied during experiments. In order to provide the real environmental conditions, specimens were tied to a ship, making voyage in the Sea of Marmara having 2.2% of salt and 22–26 °C of surface temperature, with a stainless wire to keep the specimens into sea. The specimens were kept into sea 1, 2 and 4 months. The experiments were carried out according to the ASTM D953 [ASTM D 953-D, Standard test method for bearing strength of plastics. ASTM Designation. p. 342–6]. The results show that while the bearing values obtained from the specimens kept into sea for four months decrease considerably with respect to 1 and 2 months. But, the failure modes for all configurations are the same mode. Failure distance of the pin displacement increases with the increasing of immersing period owing to softening of the specimen.