T. K. Tsotsis, S. hf. Lee
exhibited severe surface erosion, delamination, and easy
ply separation by peeling. A large-scale series of aging
experiments by Kerr and Haskins tested [O”], and [O’!
* 45”ls carbon- and boron-reinforced epoxy coupons
exposed to elevated temperatures and various air pres-
sures for up to 50000 h. Different air pressures were
used to simulate the relatively low air pressure encoun-
tered at altitudes used for supersonic operation and to
examine the degradation rate which is known2m5 to
increase with increasing air (oxygen) pressure. They
noted that edge cracking and severe property degrada-
tion did indeed occur at longer time for lower air pressure.
Bowles et al.h observed similar behavior for PMR-1%
based composites with severe surface degradation in the
form of transverse surface cracks which reduced
strength and provided pathways for deeper oxygen
penetration into the polymer matrix. Most of the stu-
dies, such as those mentioned, focused mainly on fiber-
dominated tensile property degradation and did not
examine the individual contributions of fiber. matrix
and interface.
There have also been some studies reported in the lit-
erature addressing the degradation kinematics and
mechanisms of long-term aging. Several thermogravi-
metric (TGA) methods
’ I0 for determining useful life-
times for polymers by use of kinetic models of weight
loss have been proposed. Using the method of Flynn
and Wall,’ Lee and Levi” found a significant increase in
activation energy of thermal degradation of an epoxy
resin when the temperature was increased from 100 to
200°C. The work by Grayson and Fry’” employed a
similar method to determine a ‘map’ to determine usage
temperatures and lifetimes of several polymers. Rose ct
al.” combined TGA and spectroscopic techniques to
study the degradation of an epoxy resin; they showed
the degradation mechanism to be a dehydration reac-
tion at temperatures causing less than 5% weight loss.
In a later study, Rose rt af.13 used invariant kinetic
parameters to evaluate the heat resistance of epoxy
resins. Most of the studies mentioned used TGA tech-
niques to determine weight loss rates of polymers with
temperatures. Such an approach can be subject to error
as pointed out by Arnold et a1.14 and MacCallum,‘S
with the possibility of mass transfer effects influencing
kinetic data.
Recently, Hipp et al.” performed accelerated tests to
determine a methodology for selecting candidate
composite materials (K3B polyimide and cyanate ester
reinforced with carbon fibers) for HSCT applications.
Weight loss measurements were used to construct models
to predict accelerated aging conditions. In a similar
study, Pederson et al.”
measured the effects of iso-
thermal aging on the development of cracks and found
that a BMI system showed much greater cracking and
more weight loss than the Avimid K. Nam and Seferis’s
concluded from their study on a carbon/bismaleimide
(BMI) composite that because thermo-oxidative stability
is related to the diffusion of oxygen, it is also affected by
material anisotropy and thus should be considered as a
tensorial quantity instead of a scalar quantity such as
weight loss in bulk resins. Tsotsis” pointed out the
unreliable nature of kinetic data alone to reflect com-
posite performance and concluded, for the same reason,
that the glass transition temperature, r,, is a poor indi-
cator of thermo-oxidative stability. The work of Laius
rt al.‘” studied the role of molecular structures on ther-
mal degradation of polyimides. They concluded that the
stability of the molecules was due qualitatively to the
differences in intramolecular interactions and not the
stability of the molecular backbone. McManus and
Cunningham2’
recently developed a qualitative model
for the environmental degradation of composites by
coupling diffusion and reaction mechanisms with
mechanical degradation.
Although certain understandings about the effects of
aging on mechanical properties have been reached in the
past, the exact mechanisms controlling such degrada-
tion are still not well understood. From the standpoint
of predicting long-term performance, a clearer under-
standing of the roles of the fiber, matrix and interface at
the material level is needed in order to address general
laminate performance. Clearly, weight loss and T, var-
iations alone do not directly reflect different mechanisms
controlling mechanical property degradation. Different
composite properties being dominated by fiber, matrix,
interface. or a combination, will vary in different ways
with aging. However, mechanical property degradation
is by no means unrelated to molecular structural chan-
ges which may be manifested as weight loss or T, var-
iations. It simply means that these molecular changes
affect the various material variables (mechanical and
physical) in different ways.
This paper reports on a study of long-term thermo-
oxidative aging of composites related to the other work
of Tsotsis.‘9,22 In the previous workI data were pre-
sented for the effect of thermo-oxidative aging on the
thermal, fracture and compressive properties two car-
bon-reinforced epoxy composite systems. In the com-
panion paper to the present work,22 additional data are
presented to gain deeper insights into the general char-
acteristics of resin-dominated versus fiber-dominated
property degradation.
It should be clearly pointed out that the two materials
studied here were chosen purely as model systems for
the purpose of establishing a meaningful methodology
for characterizing thermo-oxidative aging of polymeric
composites. The materials were not designed to be used
at the aging temperature (177°C). Indeed, because of
this, their property degradation as a consequence of
aging was significant in allowing the degradation
mechanisms to be clearly identified in the study. Thus
the mechanisms found would reflect the relative effects
of degradation on composite properties, even at lower
aging temperatures with, of course, lower degradation
rates. Such relative effects can then justify the necessary
tests to be performed on composites aged at the desired