Towards More Representative Accelerated Aging of Marine Composites

Abstract

International audiencePolymer and composite materials are being considered for marine applications where long term durability is critical. Unfortunately, for most of these applications it is not possible to perform test programs for ten or more years in order to verify performance, so accelerated testing is widely used. This chapter describes the parameters that can be used to accelerate aging tests and discusses their limitations. Two examples are shown from campaigns lasting over 6 and 8 years, in order to provide data that reveal long term behavior