Effect of fibers configuration and thickness on tensile behavior of GFRP laminates subjected to elevated temperatures.

Highlights • Tensile behaviour of different GFRP laminates under elevate temperatures has is investigated. • Laminates with continuous unidirectional fibers showed the best tensile performance. • Laminates with chopped strand fibers showed the weakest tensile performance. • Laminates with continuous woven fibers performed better than chopped strand and weaker than unidirectional laminates. Abstract This study was aimed at gaining an improved understanding of the behavior of glass fiber-reinforced polymer laminates at elevated temperatures by means of testing laminate specimens with unidirectional, woven, and randomly distributed (chopped strand mat) fibers. The testing parameters were temperature, the type of fiber, and the thickness of the laminates. The failure modes of the specimens and their elasticity moduli at ambient temperature were investigated, and analysis of variance was conducted to determine the contribution of each parameter to the behavioral test results. The findings showed that among the parameters, an increase in temperature exerted the strongest effect on the specimens. The unidirectional laminate specimens exhibited the best performance, maintaining nearly 40% of their loading capacity at 550 °C. At this temperature, the woven laminate specimens could not carry any tensile load, and at 400 °C, the laminate specimens containing randomly distributed fibers lost all their strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]