Effect of water uptake on creep behaviour of glass–epoxy composites

All structural components when under working conditions are subjected to damages resulting to respective deterioration of their mechanical response. The type and the extent of damage depend not only on the materials' structure, but also on the working and general environmental conditions. The main causes, for damage development in polymeric materials, are: water absorption (or moisture) from the environment, random simple impact, repeated impact, mechanical, thermal or hydrothermal fatigue, creep and any combination of the above mentioned damage sources. As a result, damage deteriorates polymeric materials' response and occasionally their fracture behaviour. In the present study, the effect of water uptake on the creep behaviour of glass–epoxy composites was investigated and experimental results were compared with respective theoretical predictions as derived from the application of a viscoelastic model.