POLYMERIC COMPOSITES IMPROVEMENT FOR MARINE APPLICATIONS

According to the high demand of fiberglass/polyester composites in marine applications, this paper has studied the properties of these composites. It has also been shown that isophthalic polyester has better properties than orthophthalic polyester, in marine applications. This paper has also investigated the vinyl ester and phenolic resin stability especially in the sea water and has shown that vinyl ester resin in comparison with polyester resin has better physical stability and chemical resistance in the sea water. Note that depend on nonflammable properties of phenolic resin, its application in each part of ship which has the highest probability of conflagration is almost inevitable. In addition, we have discussed the use of carbon fiber instead of glass fiber because the intrinsic problems of glass fiber such as heaviness and having low modulus could be solved with using carbon fiber.