Failure of Polymer Products Due to Chemical Attack

Book excerpt: Degradation reactions grouped under the heading chemical attack include oxidation hydrolysis, halogenation and other reactions. They also include some purely physical interactions between materials and fluids, dominated by the absorption of fluid into the material or vice versa. One particular mechanism described in some detail is acid induced stress corrosion cracking, which is the most frequent cause of premature failure of GRP products, and where the principle degradation reaction is between the fluid and the glass fibres. An additional indexed section containing several hundred abstracts from the Rapra Polymer Library database gives useful references for further reading.