Skip to content
Promote Forest Health for a Stable Bio-Economy Understand and Separate Wood Components Create and Commercialize New Bioproducts

Research Library

Monitoring fungal degradation of E-glass/phenolic fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites used in wood reinforcement

Authors

Jody Jellison

 

Abstract

The susceptibility of E-glass fiber reinforced polymer (FRP)/phenolic pultruded composite plates to fungal degradation was examined. Interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) by short-beam testing and ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques were applied to monitor fungal degradation of E-glass fiber reinforced polymer composites. Since the FRP material was designed for use as reinforcement with wood, the FRP material was exposed to two common wood decay fungi, a brown rot fungus and a white rot fungus. Light and scanning electron microscopy indicated that both wood decay fungi actively grew and penetrated into the FRP material, especially in high-void content areas. The reduction in apparent ILSS of the brown rot-exposed FRP material was not statistically significant at a 95% confident level. A weak relationship between decay exposure and ILLS strength loss, however, was observed. The experimental results indicate that both mechanical property evaluation techniques (ILSS and NDE) may be sensitive enough to detect the effects of fungal degradation in FRP materials.
Rounded CornerRounded Corner
Other Publications By:

 

NSF EPSCoR The University of Maine EPSCoR Department of Energy
This project is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. EPS-0554545 This project is supported by the Department of Energy EPSCoR program under award number DE-FG02-07ER46373