*** 9625820 Porter This project addresses several important issues regarding the short-term and long-term corrosion and aging characteristics of fiber composite (FC) materials. These types of materials are excellent candidates for rebars and prestressing tendons in marine environments, and other civilian and military infrastructure uses. These materials show great promise because they are non-metallic and therefore are believed to be generally free of the corrosive problems to which steel has been susceptible. The objectives of the research involve examining the load- carrying and strength loss characteristics of a variety of proposed FC material that have intended applications in the reinforcing bar and prestressing tendon uses FC reinforcing bars and prestressing tendons constructed using long-fiber glass strands and aramid or carbon-fibers embedded in a vinyl ester or epoxy matrix will be examined using analytical techniques for accelerated aging. The accelerated aging technique currently used at Iowa State University has shown great promise in predicting the long-term durability of FC materials. This research will evaluate the accelerated aging process itself, the most recent and highest-performance candidate FC materials, and FC-alkaline chemical reactions in general.***
