Environmental testing of high strength molding compounds

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Abstract
Tensile and short beam shear tests were performed on five high strength vinyl ester molding compounds after immersion in water at various temperatures. These tests were conducted in order to characterize the degradation of these properties with environmental exposure and to isolate problem areas which contribute to the degradation. Reductions of up to 70 percent were found for both tensile and short beam shear strength, when tested at high temperatures. This loss of properties is primarily a result of degradation of the glass/resin interface and is essentially irreversible.