Shear Strength Characteristics in Aged Polyester-glass Fibre Composites

Researches on the effects produced by the sun light upon polymeric matrix composites have been increased on the last ten years. It is commonly to find literature about mechanical characteristics degradation due to different environment effects. But a few ones are related to the shear behaviour. Moreover a limited studies are related to glass fibre polyester, even that are the composites most commonly used, due to its easily elaboration process and to its good cost-performance ratio. Thus, this paper will deal with the study the degradation on the shear behaviour of glass fibre polyester composites exposed to an accelerated simulation with an UV-visible light source. The influence on kind of resin and cured temperature were analysed. The shear degradation fits really close to the mathematical model proposed. Some relations have been found on the shear degradation due to the kind of resin and to the cured temperature.