Composite Materials Advantages And Disadvantages

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Composites are combination of two or more materials that results in better properties than those of the individual components used alone. There are many disadvantages of using composite materials such as lightweight, high strength, corrosion resistant, high strength-to-weight ratio, high impact strength, high electric strength (insulator), low maintenance, etc. Because of that, composites are one of engineer’s favorite materials nowadays. Almost in all sectors like oil, gas, aviation, and automobile industries are all using composite materials. In order to meet increasing technical, technological and economic requirements, the use of modern, composite materials becomes increasingly prominent. Especially in oil and gas industry.
At first, the …show more content…

In general, epoxies are stiffer and stronger, but more brittle than polyesters, it also has wide variety of properties. Epoxies also retain their properties better in high temperatures than polyesters do, but epoxies are expensive and has a long curing time. On the other hand, polyester has faster cure time and cheaper than epoxy, but has lower variety of properties than epoxy. When we look at phenolic’s propeties, it has many positive properties that epoxy and polyester do not have. These materials are much like a thermoplastic material at room temperature but change to a thermosetting material at elevated temperature. They are cheaper and stronger then epoxy and many polyester resins. The disadvantage is their relatively high shrinkage during curing. The last one, polyethylene (PE), is one of the most versatile and widely used thermoplastics in the world because of its excellent properties like toughness, near-zero moisture absorption, excellent chemical inertness, low coefficient of friction, ease of processing and unusual electrical properties. Based on their properties, we can assume that the usage of these 4 composites are to complete the advantages and disadvantages from each composites to obtain the properties that we …show more content…

The pipes are divided into two section, fluid transport pipes and drill pipes. The manufacture of fluid transport pipes and tanks of the storage thereof are similar. The most frequently used composites are GRP (glass reinforced plastic) composites, also known as fiberglass composites. Those composites are made of standard plastic matrix reinforced with glass fibers. Plastic matrix in GRP composites is most usually made of epoxy resin (GRE pipes) or vinyl-ester (GRVE pipes), and sometimes polyester. GRE pipes are characterized by: high corrosion stability, high value of "strength/mass" relation (much higher than with steel), small mass, electrical non-conductivity, dimensional stability, chemical inertness and smooth pipe surface. Operating pressure lies within broadband from atmospheric pressure up to 40 MPa. Maximum operating temperature is slightly higher than

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