Experimental Study on the Mechanical Properties of Basalt Fibres and Pultruded BFRP Plates at Elevated Temperatures

Experimental Study on the Mechanical Properties of Basalt Fibres

and Pultruded BFRP Plates at Elevated Temperatures
Zhongyu Lu, Guijun Xian*, and Hui Li
Key Lab of Structures Dynamic Behaviour and Control (Harbin Institute of Technology), Ministry of Education,
Heilongjiang, Harbin, 150090, China
School of Civil Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Heilongjiang, Harbin, 150090, China
Received: 12 June 2013, Accepted: 24 July 2014

SUMMARY
Basalt fibre reinforced polymer (BFRP) composites have been widely used for structural strengthening and
reinforcement in civil engineering recently. Since fire risk is unavoidable for most civil structures, the degradation
of BFRP at elevated temperatures needs to be known for the safe design of its strengthened or reinforced structures
under fire risk. In this study, the mechanical properties of basalt fibre roving and pultruded basalt fibre reinforced
epoxy plates were investigated at elevated temperatures. As the temperatures increasing from room temperature
to 200 °C, the tensile strength and modulus of the fibre roving were reduced by 8.3% and 9.7%, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Weibull shape parameter (m) of the fibre roving decreased by 20.5%. As regards the BFRP plates,
however, the elevated temperatures show more adverse influence. The tensile strength and modulus of the BFRP
plates is reduced by 37.5% and 31% as temperature rising to 200 °C. Compared to the tensile properties, the
short beam shear strength (SBS) was reduced by around 90%, more susceptible to the elevated temperatures.
The glass transition temperature (~93 °C) plays a key role on the inflexion of the variation of the mechanical
properties, especially for the tensile strength. In a wide temperature range, the relationship between the tensile
strength and the SBS showed a good linearity, indicating the reduction of the tensile strength comes from the
deterioration of the interlaminar shear strength at elevated temperatures.

Keywords: Elevated temperature, Basalt fibre, Pultruded plate, Tensile properties, Fibre roving

1. Introduction
In recent years, FRPs have already
been widely used in civil engineering,
such as replacing steel bars to reinforce
concrete structures, or strengthening
and upgrading existed concrete
structures. Fibre reinforced polymer
(FRP) composites possess many
advantages over traditional structural
materials in terms of high specific
strength and stiffness, flexibility of
design, resistance to corrosion, etc.
However, the poor fire resistance
and higher flammability of FRPs are
always a key concern since the FRP
reinforced or strengthened structures
are less suitable to face a fire risk1.
Although various protective coatings
©
Smithers Information Ltd., 2015
were applied to isolate the FRPs from
direct contact the fire2, FRPs were still
subjected to the elevated temperatures3.
To determine the design parameters
of FRP strengthening or reinforcing
structures with a fire risk, it is
a prerequisite to understand the
mechanical degradation of FRP
materials at elevated temperatures. The
polymer matrix of FRP composites,
generally, shows a low temperature
resistance. When heated to moderate
temperatures (100-200 °C), the
polymer matrix will rapidly lose its
strength and stiffness4, while FRP
materials start to soften3,5. This speeds
up the degradation of the composites6.
As a result, FRPs tend to lose their
reinforcement effect and the concrete
beams or columns lose their structural
capacity. Thus, the safety of the FRP
reinforced or strengthened structures
is significantly deteriorated. Therefore,
FRPs cannot reach their full potential
until the behaviour under elevated
temperature is fully understood7.
Although the resin matrix starts
to soften at T g , the mechanical
properties of unidirectional FRPs at
the temperatures above Tg still retained
to a high extent. As reported recently,
for a GFRP composite, almost half of
the tensile strength was lost near its Tg.
However, 40% of the room temperature
strength of the GFRP was still retained
at 200 °C8. At 300 °C the ultimate
strength was approximately 50% of
the room-temperature strength9. Wu
et al.4,10 studied the tensile properties
of CFRP and hybrid FRP composites

Polymers & Polymer Composites, Vol. 23, No. 5, 2015 277


from room temperature to 200 °C.
When the temperature exceeded its
glass transition temperature (Tg), the
tensile strength of CFRP sheets remains
about 60% of its original strength at
room temperatures, and the strength
of the dry fibre sheets showed no
obvious change. Tensile properties
were fibre dominated, and elevated
temperature had little influence on the
fibre properties. However, the effect
of the fibre uniformity and interface
of the composites under elevated
temperatures wasn’t reported in the
above papers.
Bai et al.11,12 studied the stiffness
change of the FRP composites
under elevated temperatures. A new
model was proposed to calculate the
temperature dependent E-modulus of
FRP composites. Chowdhury8 studied
the GFRP mechanical degradation
between room temperature and 200 °C,
and proposed an analytical model to
characterize the mechanical properties
at elevated temperature. Wang et al.9
studied the mechanical properties of
pultruded CFRP plates under elevated
temperatures. An equation that related
the tensile strength of the plate to
the temperatures was proposed. An
understanding of the variation of the
mechanical properties as a function
of temperatures is essential to set the
design parameters in civil engineering
structures.
Recently, basalt fibre and its reinforced
polymer composites have been widely
investigated as a new structural
material in civil engineering as an
alternative of glass- or carbon- fibre
reinforced composites. It is known
that the basalt fibres have better tensile
strength than the E-glass fibres, greater
failure strain than the carbon fibres as
well as good resistance to chemical
attack, impact load and fire with less
poisonous fumes13. Basalt fibres are
from basalt rocks through melting
process. The basalt rocks can be so
finely divided into small particles that
it is possible to process them into the
form of fibres. In addition, the basalt
278
Zhongyu Lu, Guijun Xian, and Hui Li
fibres do not contain any other additives
in a single producing process, which
makes additional advantage in cost14.
From these advantages, the basalt fibre
and its reinforced FRP materials are
increasingly applied. The fundamental
properties of the basalt fibre as a
reinforcing steel replacement in the
concrete structures have been already
studied15,16.
To understand the mechanical
properties of a pultruded BFRP plate at
elevated temperatures for their safe and
economic application in engineering
structures, tensile and short beam
shear properties of the basalt fibre
roving and BFRP plates were studied
as a function of elevated temperatures
ranging from room temperature to
200 °C. The possible mechanisms of
the degradation were analyzed. It is
worth noting that the present study
was performed on both the fibre and
the BFRP composites at elevated
temperatures, and the degradation of
the bonding strength between fibre and
resin matrix was paid more attention to.
The study is different from the previous
study, where the fibre and the bonding
properties at elevated temperatures
were neglected.
2. Experimental
2.1 Raw Materials
The unidirectional basalt fibre
reinforced epoxy composite plates
were manufactured with a pultrusion
process at the Laboratory for FRP
Composites and Structures (LFCS),
Harbin Institute of Technology,
China. The thicknesses and widths
of the plates were 1.4 mm and 15
mm, respectively. Glass transition
temperature (Tg) of the plate tested
with DSC (Differential Scanning
Calorimetry) was 93.3 °C, and
the fibre volume fraction (Vf) was
approximately 70.7% tested with
the burning-off method. The tensile
strength, modulus and elongation
at room temperature were 2.7 GPa,
85.4 GPa and 3.7%, respectively.
Polymers & Polymer Composites, Vol. 23, No. 5, 2015
The diameter of the used basalt fibres
were 15.5 µm, and the density of the
fibre was 2.60 g/cm3. The resin is a high
temperature curable epoxy system.
2.2 Tensile Properties Testing of
Basalt Fibre Roving
In the present study, the tensile
properties of the basalt fibre roving
used for the below BFRP plates were
tested. The gauge length was set as 260
± 2 mm, and the specimen was loaded
in tension at a rate of 5 mm/min. The
testing temperature was controlled with
an electrically heated kiln (Figure 1),
which was purpose-built at LFCS,
and the control precision was within
± 2 °C. The temperature of the roving
was measured with thermocouples,
which was in touch with the fibre roving
during heating.
The fibre roving was kept at the
predetermined elevated temperatures
for 10 minutes, and then was tested
in tension with a hydraulic machine
(WDW-100D model, Jinan SJ
Company, China). Note, the nominal
modulus was used and the Weibull
distribution model were used to
calculate the tensile strength, which
is indicated in literature17.
2.3 Mechanical Testing of
BFRP Plates
Tensile tests of BFRP plates were
performed according to ASTM D
3039/D 3039M-0018 (Standard Test
Method for Tensile Properties of
Polymer Matrix Composite Materials).
The length of the composite panels was
cut into 400 mm ± 3 mm in length.
An extensometer having a 50 mm
gauge length was used to measure
strains. When a level of 0.3% strain
was reached the extensometer was
removed from test equipment so as to
avoid the damage from the specimens
rupture. Tests were conducted under
a displacement controlled mode. The
tensile rate was set as 5 mm/min. All
testing specimens were pretreated in an
oven at 60 °C for 24 hours before the
 Experimental Study on the Mechanical Properties of Basalt Fibres and Pultruded BFRP Plates at Elevated Temperatures

tensile test. The testing temperatures Table 1. Tensile properties of basalt fibre roving at various temperatures. Note
were set as 40 °C, 80 °C, 120 °C, that the testing data were analyzed with Weibull distribution model, S0 is the
160 °C and 200 °C. Before testing at scale parameter, m is the shape parameter
predetermined elevated temperatures, No. Temperatures S0 (MPa) m Tensile Strength Tensile Modulus
the specimens were kept in the kiln (°C) (MPa) (GPa)
for10 minutes to make sure the 1 20 1756 6.84 2515 58.9
temperature in the plate to be uniform19. 2 40 1785 6.25 2612 58.6
3 80 1774 6.11 2610 56.2
The interlaminar shear properties of
4 120 1747 6.32 2465 57.1
BFRP plates were conducted following
5 160 1650 6.70 2375 55.9
ASTM D 2344/D 2344M-00 20
(Standard Test Method for Short-Beam 6 200 1542 5.44 2306 53.2
Strength of Polymer Matrix Composite
Materials and Their Laminates).The
dimensions of the specimens were Figure 1. Tensile test setup for fibre roving and BFRP plates with a kiln for
temperature control
1.4 mm × 3 mm × 9 mm (thickness
× width × length). A crosshead speed
of 1 mm/min was applied for all the
tests. The pretreatment procedure of
the specimens was the same as that
used for tensile testing.

All mechanical tests were conducted

with the same tensile testing machine
as mentioned for fibre roving testing.

2.4 SEM Analysis

Tensile fractured surfaces of the BFRPs
were platinum coated and observed
by scanning electron microscopy
(SEMQUANTA 200F, FEI Company,
America).

3. Results and
discussion
3.1 Tensile Properties of Basalt
Fibre Roving at Elevated
Temperatures
Table 1 summarizes the tensile
properties of basalt fibre roving at
various testing temperatures, which
were analyzed on the raw testing
values according to the Weibull
distribution model17. Figure 2 shows
the strength degradation of the fibre
roving with increase of the testing
temperatures.
As shown in Table 1 and Figure 2, as
the temperature increased from room
temperature to 200 °C, the tensile
strength of the fibre roving decreased
from 2515 MPa to 2306 MPa, reduced
by 8.3%. It is worth noting that the
effects of temperatures lower than
120 °C is negligible on the tensile
strength.
The tensile modulus of the fibre roving
(See in Table 1) is slightly lower than
that tested with the single fibre tensile
test. This can be explained by the
fibre slack or debonding of anchoring
during testing[21]. The effects of the
testing temperatures on the tensile
modulus of the fibre roving are
shown in Figure 3 (also in Table 1).
The modulus decreases slightly with
increase of the testing temperatures.
The reduction ratio is about 9.7% as
the temperature increases from room
temperature to 200 °C.
It is worth noting that the shape
parameter (m) of the tensile strength
of the fibre roving appears to be very
susceptible to the testing temperatures.
As the temperature rose to 200 °C,
the value of m is reduced by 20.5%.
As known, the value of m is related

Polymers & Polymer Composites, Vol. 23, No. 5, 2015 279


Figure 2. Variation of tensile strength of fibre roving as a function of testing
temperatures
Figure 3. Variation of tensile modulus of fibre roving as a function of testing
temperatures
to the variation of the tensile strength
of the fibre22. Therefore, it can be
concluded that increasing the testing
temperatures leads to more fluctuation
in the tensile strength of the basalt
fibre roving.
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Zhongyu Lu, Guijun Xian, and Hui Li
3.2 Tensile Modulus of BFRP at
Elevated Temperatures
The temperature dependence of the
tensile modulus of BFRP plate is
shown in Figure 4. As shown, the
modulus was slightly influenced by the
Polymers & Polymer Composites, Vol. 23, No. 5, 2015
testing temperatures when it is lower
than the glass transition temperature
(Tg) of the BFRP plate, i.e., 93.3 °C.
As the testing temperatures exceeded
the value of Tg, the modulus of the
BFRP plates dropped sharply, due to
the softening of the matrix. When the
temperatures increased from 80 °C to
160 °C, the tensile modulus started
to reduce abruptly to about 69% of
its room temperature values. Further
increase of the test temperatures did
not vary the tensile modulus.
The modulus of the BFRP plates is
mainly dependent on the fibres since
the modulus of resin is much lower than
the fibre roving. As shown in Figure 4,
however, rather than small change of
the modulus of the fibre roving (as
shown in Figure 3), the modulus of
the BFRP decrease remarkably as the
testing temperature exceeds Tg. This
can be attributed to the softening of the
resin matrix, which can not bind the
fibres together and make them to bear
the loading simultaneously. The fact
that the modulus of BFRP is reduced
at elevated temperatures, indicates that
the resin system still plays a key role on
the degradation of the tensile modulus
of the BFRP plate.
Besides, it is worth noting that high
variation of the modulus is also found
for the case of the high temperatures.
This is also attributed to the assumption
above, that the fibres cannot bear the
loading simultaneously due to the resin
matrix softening.
3.3 Tensile and Short Beam
Shear Strength of BFRP Plates
The temperature dependence of the
tensile strength of BFRP plates is
presented in Figure 5. As shown, when
the testing temperatures increased from
the room temperature to 40 °C, the
tensile strength is enhanced slightly.
The post-curing effect is expected to
be responsible for this. With further
increase of the testing temperatures,
however, the tensile strength decreased
almost linearly. As the temperature
 Experimental Study on the Mechanical Properties of Basalt Fibres and Pultruded BFRP Plates at Elevated Temperatures

reach 200 °C, the tensile strength Figure 4. Effect of test temperatures on the tensile modulus of the BFRP plate
reduced by 37.5% compared to
the strength at room temperature.
Similarly, the softening of the resin
cannot effectively share the tensile
force to each filament, and thus, the
fibres cannot fracture in the same time,
leading to lowered tensile strength.
Besides, as expected, degradation of
the mechanical properties of fibres (as
shown in Figure 2) is also contributed
to the decrease of the tensile strength.

Figure 6 shows the photographs

of the BFRP plate samples after
tension. When the testing temperatures
are lower than its glass transition
temperature, the failure mode looks
brittle, and fibres were still bound
together by the resin matrix. However,
as the temperature is close to or higher Figure 5. Effect of test temperatures on the tensile strength of the BFRP plate
than the glass transition temperature,
the fibres seem to fracture separately,
due to the lack of the binding effect of
the softening resin.

Figure 7 shows SEM photographs of

the tension rapture surfaces of BFRP
plates. A good bonding characteristic
between fibre and matrix at room
temperature is indicated by much resin
attached on the fibre surfaces. With
increasing the testing temperatures,
resin starts to soften, and less resin
was found on the surfaces of the fibres.

Figure 8 presents the short beam

strength (SBS) of the BFRP plate as a
function of the testing temperatures. As
shown, when the temperature increases
by Tg, the SBS decreases remarkably. Figure 6. Photograph of the BFRP samples after tensile test at elevated
At room temperature, the SBS is temperatures
70.5 MPa. Increasing the temperatures
leads to an almost linear decrease of
SBS. At 160 °C, SBS is reduced to
7.2 MPa, only 10% of its original value
at room temperature.

Figure 9 shows the relationship

between the tensile strength of BFRP
plates and the SBS values at various
testing temperatures. As shown,
in the temperature range of 40 °C
to 160 °C, a good linear curve is
observed. As known, the SBS of a

Polymers & Polymer Composites, Vol. 23, No. 5, 2015 281

 Zhongyu Lu, Guijun Xian, and Hui Li

Figure 7. SEM photographs of tensile fractured BFRP sample tested at room temperature (a), 120 °C (b) and 200 °C (c)

Figure 8. Variation of the short beam shear strength as a function of testing fibre reinforced polymer composites
temperatures can be used to characterize the bonding
characteristics of the fibre and resin
matrix. The results given in Figure 9
clearly indicate that the degradation of
the bonding strength readily brings in
the reduction of the tensile strength.

4. Conclusions
In the present paper, the effects of
elevated temperatures on basalt fibre
roving and pultruded unidirectional
BFRP plates were investigated. The
following conclusions were drawn,
based on the experimental results.

The tensile results on the fibre roving

indicated that temperatures ranging
from room temperature to 200°C show
adverse effects on the tensile properties.
Figure 9. Correlation between SBS and tensile strength The tensile strength and modulus are
reduced by 8.3% and 9.7%, respectively.

As regards the BFRP plates, however,

elevated temperatures show more
adverse effects on the mechanical
properties. Up to 200°C, the tensile
strength and modulus are reduced
by 37.5% and 31%, respectively,
while the short beam shear strength
was reduced by around 90%. The
inflexion points of the variation of the
mechanical properties as a function of
temperatures was closely related to the
glass transition temperatures (~93°C)
of the resin matrix.

The correlation between the tensile

strength and SBS shows a good

282 Polymers & Polymer Composites, Vol. 23, No. 5, 2015

 Experimental Study on the Mechanical Properties of Basalt Fibres and Pultruded BFRP Plates at Elevated Temperatures

linearity in a wide temperature range,
indicating that the deterioration of the
adhesion between the fibres and resin
is responsible for the reduction of the
tensile strength.
Acknowledgements
This work is financially supported
by NSFC with Grant No. 51178147,
the National Key Basic Research
Program of China (973 Program)
with Grant No. 2012CB026200, and
supported by Guangdong Provincial
Key Laboratory of Durability for
Marine Civil Engineering (Shenzen
University, China) with grant No.
GDDCE 12-02.
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