Abstract
This paper deals with the experimental study on the hygrothermal ageing effect to the strength of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) materials for marine leisure boat manufactured by vacuum assisted resin infusion method. The experiments performed consist of tensile, flexural and shear tests according to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and Korean Industrial Standards (KS) test methods. Test coupons are varied from uni-directional(UD, $0^{\circ}$, $90^{\circ}$), Bi-Directional (BD), and Double-Bias (DB) carbon fiber fabrics in conjunction with epoxy resin. The results of tensile test show that tensile strength reduces significantly while not the same degree of reduction is observed for elasticity modulus with respect to the existence of hygrothermal ageing effect. This implies that the tensile strain induced from external load holds steady values but ultimate strength values change widely under hygrothermal ageing effect. In case of the flexural test, $0^{\circ}$ UD shows more strength reduction than $90^{\circ}$ UD while BD has reduced values in both flexural strength and elasticity modulus under hygrothermal ageing effect. It is learned that the bending strain induced from external load and ultimate strength values are reduced with respect to hygrothermal ageing effect. Shear test performed only on DB materials, and the results show marginal reduction in ultimate strength and moderate reduction in elasticity modulus. This means that the shear strain varies more than ultimate shear strength with respect to hygrothermal ageing effect. The experiment conducted in this paper clearly demonstrates the differences in material properties of the CFRP for the consideration of hygrothermal ageing effect. Findings obtained from this experimental study can serve as a fundamental input data for the realistic structural responses of marine leisure boat built in CFRP materials.