Bright future for vinyl ester resins in corrosion applications

doi:10.1016/S0034-3617(09)70151-1

Reinforced Plastics

Volume 53, Issue 4, May 2009, Pages 34-37

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0034-3617(09)70151-1 Get rights and content

Sébastien Taillemite of Cray Valley and Rick Pauer of CCP explain how improved vinyl ester resins and processing techniques are creating more opportunities for composites in corrosion resistant applications such as flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) equipment, wind turbine blades and infrastructure products.

Section snippets

Corrosion-resistant resins

Corrosion-resistant materials are widely used in our daily life. They include painted steel, glass containers, stainless steel articles, and a wide variety of plastics to meet the demands of most general purpose applications. In more extreme environments though, such as exposure to salt water, harsher temperatures, abrasive conditions, pressure/vacuum or highly corrosive chemicals, more specialised materials are required.

FRP made of vinyl ester resin is one material that offers considerably

Corrosive environments

The main reason flue gases are so corrosive is easy to understand. Wet scrubbing is generally used to remove SO₂ and SO₃ from combustion gases, which in turn results in significant reductions of the flue gas temperature. Whereas in the past, the flue gases were reheated, they are now directly introduced in the stack without reheating to improve the energy efficiency of the power plant. As a result, condensation occurs and the dissolution of SO₃ in water creates sulphuric acid, a very corrosive

Improved cost efficiency

Even with this competitive advantage over alternative, exotic metal hybrid products, the FRP industry continues to develop improved processes such as the one currently used by Kenway Corporation, of Augusta, Maine, USA. In January 2009, the American Composite Manufacturers Association (ACMA) presented the Award for Technical Innovation for Corrosion Applications to Kenway for its FRP corrosion resistant blind flange (see Figure 2). This flange, which is used in an FGD project, is made through

Available technology

In fact, not one but two EPOVIA infusion resins have been developed for such demanding applications. The first is designed for smaller, room temperature cure applications that require longer gel times of around 60 minutes, but need reduced exotherm to manufacture such extra thick laminates (+5 inch/+12.5 cm). These very thick laminates, produced with conventional vinyl ester resin cure packages, would literally explode and crack from the heat of exotherm and resulting out-gassing. These high

Wind turbine blades

The markets for these infusion grades include the rapidly expanding wind energy sector (FRP turbine blades), corrosion applications (such as FGD and chimney stack liners), and in infrastructure markets (for example, large FRP structural I-beams). Many of these applications will be in excess of 5-15 cm (2-6 inch) in thickness, 65-70% glass and/or carbon fibre reinforced laminates, and can reach 50 m (150 ft) or more in length (wind turbine blades).

The benefits of Epovia vinyl ester chemistries

Additional infusion products

A recent product breakthrough for closed moulders was launched by CCP at the International Boatbuilders Exhibition (IBEX) in Miami in October 2008. The product was specifically designed as a reactive tackifier for positioning dry glass fabrics and core materials prior to vacuum infusion or resin transfer moulding (RTM).

The aerosol packaged product is called NuTack® BLU. As can be seen in Figure 4, the use of NuTack BLU significantly improves inter-laminar shear results when compared to the

Bright future

As discussed, new materials are available for the rapidly emerging structural and corrosion markets. These newer materials should be investigated by FRP fabricators and specifiers when considering composite GRP materials for part production as they offer significant advantages over conventional metal, brick and cement-based materials currently used in the industry. The success of vinyl ester based GRP in FGD power plant applications should allow fabricators to expand the use of GRP materials

References (0)

Cited by (22)

Vinylester resins as a matrix material in advanced fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites
2022, Advanced Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Composites for Structural Applications
This chapter discusses the use of vinylester resin as a matrix in polymer composite materials to be used in civil engineering applications. The chapter begins by discussing the increasing trend of composite development and uses in civil engineering along with the related reasons. It then reviews the chemistry of vinylester resins together with their mechanical and chemical properties as well as the applications of vinylester resin and composites in the construction industry. The chapter includes indications of future applications of vinylester-based fiber-reinforced composites.
Compression behavior of large-scaled cylindrical GFRP chimney liner segments
2020, Composite Structures
Citation Excerpt :
To meet these demands, GFRP liners have been proposed to alleviate the flue situations [6–8]. FRP is a kind of composite material made of polymer matrix reinforced with fibers, where the polymer is usually epoxy, vinyl ester [9] or polyester thermosetting plastic [10] and phenol-formaldehyde resin [11]. The fibers are usually glass [12–14], carbon, aramid or basalt [15], among which the glass fiber is the most practical choice for chimney liners due to the low cost and good performance.
As a pivotal anti-corrosion structure in the wet flue gas desulfurization system, the huge filament-wound GFRP (glass fiber-reinforced polymer) tube is often employed as the chimney liner. However, the study on its mechanical properties is rare. Three large-scale stiffened cylindrical GFRP chimney liner segments were tested under the axial compression, including an integrated filament-wound chimney liner specimen with two ring stiffeners, a specimen with two ring stiffeners cut into two segments and joined by a hand-wound technique, and a specimen with an outside ring bracket. The failure modes, load-displacement relationships, variation of strains during the loading process, were acquired by test. The effects of ring stiffeners on the mechanical behavior, service reliability of the joint between the two segments of the chimney liner, and the reliability of the ring bracket were examined. Comparisons between theoretically calculated stiffness and experimentally measured stiffness were discussed. Finally, finite element analysis was performed to examine the failure modes and axial load-displacement behavior of the investigated chimney liners. Different ranges of diameter to thickness ratios and load eccentricity values were selected to examine their effects on the mechanical behavior of chimney liners. Finally, suggestions on the design of chimney liner structure were given.
Tribological behaviour of hybrid reinforced vinyl ester based functionally graded materials
2020, Materials Today: Proceedings
Citation Excerpt :
Vinyl ester is the resin of thermoset engineering polymers category. Vinyl ester Resin poses excellent mechanical properties as well as excellent chemical/corrosion resistance even at elevated temperatures [12–16]. As a reinforcement material we used E-milled glass fibre (Poly Glass Fibre Okhla, Delhi) Fig. 1a and Graphite (locally supplied) Fig. 1b. E-milled glass fibres are synthesized from the glass fibres and it is the mixture of different oxides (55%SiO2, 11%Al2O3, 6%B2O3, 18%CaO, 5%MgO, and 5% other).
This paper focuses on the synthesis and wear behaviour of functionally graded hybrid composites. In this article, Vinyl ester, Milled E-glass fiber and graphite are used as matrix and reinforcing materials, respectively. Functionally graded materials are synthesized by vertical centrifugal casting method. The tribological characteristics of the composites are evaluated according to the ASTM standard. The results of experimental sliding wear tests show that wear rate per unit normal load increase with increasing the applied load and sliding distance, but after the addition of graphite, the reverse trend with the sliding speed is observed. According to the results of the Taguchi analysis, the optimal values for each control factor are normal load = 35 N, filling content = 2.5% by weight, sliding speed = 0.5 m / s and sliding distance = 500 m. ANOVA analysis indicates the most impacting factor in descending order, Reinforcement P = 0.167 > Normal load P = 0.178 > Sliding speed P = 0.251 > Sliding distance P = 0.334. Microstructural analysis of worn and unworn samples to understand the basic mechanisms of surface friction wear has been carried out by using FE-SEM.
Mechanical behavior of cylindrical GFRP chimney liners subjected to axial tension
2019, Composites Part B: Engineering
Citation Excerpt :
Therefore, GFRP chimney liners [8,9] working in high temperature and corrosive atmosphere [10,11] must be examined. FRP is a kind of composite material made of polymer matrix reinforced with fibers, where the polymer matrix is usually epoxy, vinyl ester [12], or polyester thermosetting plastic [13] and phenol formaldehyde resin [14]. The fibers are usually glass [15], carbon, aramid, or basalt [16], among which glass fiber is the most practical choice in chimney liners for its good cost performance [17].
The large diameter filament-wound glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) tube as the chimney liner is a pivotal anti-corrosion structure in the wet flue gas desulfurization system. Fourteen GFRP specimens with a larger size (3000 mm × 1100 mm × 5.6 mm) and twenty GFRP specimens with a smaller size (350 mm × 25 mm × 5.6 mm) have been investigated by tensile tests. All specimens were cut from two GFRP chimney liner specimens, which were fabricated with the scaled-down ratio of 3:1 (practical to experimental) according to the standard guide for design of GFRP chimney liners for coal-fired units. Among the fourteen larger specimens, seven specimens were cut into two segments and then jointed by the hand-wound technique at the middle height of the specimens, while the other seven larger specimens and twenty smaller specimens were integrated. All specimens were subjected to axial tension at four different temperatures, including the ambient temperature (approximately 30 °C), 60 °C, 90 °C, and 120 °C. Based on the tests, the failure modes and tensile load-displacement relationships were determined. The temperature-dependency and size-dependency of the tensile strength, tensile strain, and elastic modulus were analyzed. Moreover, the comparisons between integrated and jointed specimens were examined. Finally, a modeling method for the tensile mechanical properties of composites under elevated temperatures was proposed for GFRP chimney liner design.
Novel renewable resource-based UV-curable copolymers derived from myrcene and tung oil: Preparation, characterization and properties
2015, Industrial Crops and Products
Citation Excerpt :
Vinyl ester resin, an important thermosetting resin, is usually a mixture of monomer, dimer and some other oligomers. The curing mechanism of VER conforms to that of unsaturated polyesters and its molecular structure similar to that of epoxy resin (Robinette et al., 2004; Taillemite and Pauer, 2009). Therefore, cured VER exhibits excellent mechanical strength, chemical resistance and perfect thermal stability, which make them widely used in automotive industry, marine industry, metallurgy, military affairs, sports, pharmacy, construction and other industries (Auad et al., 2001).
Two novel ultraviolet (UV)-curable vinyl ester resin (VER) monomers derived from myrcene and tung oil were synthesized via Diels–Alder reaction, glycidylation reaction and ring-opening esterification. Their chemical structures were confirmed by Fourier transform-infrared analysis (FTIR) and Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR). Then the two VER monomers were mixed at different weight ratios and cured under UV light. The curing processes were monitored by FTIR analysis. Tensile and flexural properties of the cured resins were also tested. The conversion rate of double bond exceeded 80% within 60 s and the final conversion rate was 95%. Tensile and flexural tests indicated that the rigidity–flexibility was balanced in the cured systems when the mixed resins contained 50–70 wt% of myrcene-based VER monomer. Dynamic mechanical analysis demonstrated that the storage modulus and glass transition temperatures of the cured resins increased with the increasing content of myrcene-based VER monomer. The crosslinking density of the cured copolymers also increased with the increasing content of myrcene-based VER monomer. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that the main thermal initial decomposition temperatures (T_i) of the cured copolymers were all above 388 °C. All the results demonstrated that comparable balanced properties could be obtained by mixing these two bio-based monomers together.
Design, preparation and properties of novel renewable UV-curable copolymers based on cardanol and dimer fatty acids
2014, Progress in Organic Coatings
Citation Excerpt :
UV-curable coatings are a novel type of excellent coatings used in many industries because of high curing rate, free of solvent, broad formulation range, low energy consumption, and low space and capital requirements for curing equipment [1–3]. UV-curable coatings are usually a mixture of monomers, dimmers, trimers and oligomers, among which, vinyl ester (VE) monomers have gained growing attention and speedy development [4–9]. New materials from renewable resources have attracted much attention in recent years because of their low cost, annual renewability, high compatibility and potential biodegradability [10–17].
A cardanol-based UV-curable vinyl ester (VE) monomer was prepared via simple esterification, and its successful synthesis was demonstrated by FTIR and ¹H-NMR. In order to improve its rigidity, it was mixed with certain proportions of another reactive bio-based VE monomer, maleic anhydride modified dimer fatty acids polymerized glycidyl methacrylate (MA-m-DA-p-GMA) which had rigid and strong polar groups, and then a series of UV-cured copolymers were prepared from the two VE monomers. The UV curing process was monitored by FTIR analysis. The tensile and thermal properties of the cured copolymer films were also investigated. UV curing analysis demonstrated that the double bonds in the mixed VE could be converted to ultimate curing level within 40 s. Tensile tests showed the prepared copolymers had a tensile strength of 8.86 MPa. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) revealed the copolymers had relatively high glass transition temperature (T_g) from 40 to 60 °C. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed the copolymers containing higher content of CDMA had higher thermal stability, and all copolymers’ main thermal initial decomposition temperatures were above 410 °C, indicating the copolymers had certain thermal stability. These copolymer films can be used as eco-friendly materials in coatings and other applications to replace the currently used petroleum-based polymers.

View all citing articles on Scopus

Further information

Cray Valley; www.crayvalley.com

CCP; www.ccponline.com

Kenway Corporation; www.kenway.com

Arkema; www.arkema.com

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FeatureBright future for vinyl ester resins in corrosion applications