The current and future trends of composite materials: an experimental study

The usages of the composite materials range from simple household to light-to-heavy industrial purposes including oilfield applications. The objective of this study is to evaluate current and potential uses of composite materials for the petroleum industry. This article gathered all the available composite materials that are normally used specially in oilfield and surface pipeline applications. Out of those, four fiberglass-reinforced plastic materials (i.e., AR-glass, boronfree E-glass, C-glass, and E-glass) were selected to conduct an experiment in acidic and alkaline environments. The results show that AR-glass is corrosion resistant at high temperature and high acidic and alkaline environments. The weight loss due to corrosion is less than the other three materials. Boron-free E-glass is also better than C-glass and E-glass, especially in acidic environment. Another aspect of this research is to find out a research gateway toward the development of sustainable composites. When toxic components are used during the development of new materials, nowadays, this becomes an issue for environmental groups. Therefore, this study suggests the researchers to look for an environment-friendly, sustainable composite material that can be widely used in the petroleum industry. Finally, the trend of future research has been outlined and an indication of sustainable composite material choice has been proposed for oilfield applications.