Polymers and polymeric composites are appealing for many engineering applications, from parts of aircraft, civil infrastructures, to retrofitting nuclear reactor containment concrete structures, etc. One of the main issues in utilizing polymeric based structures is associated to their durability under combined mechanical loadings and hostile environmental conditions, such as temperature fluctuations and diffusion/reactions of various substances through these structures. These complex loadings will cause material degradation at different scales, and eventually lead to structural failure. This workshop on "Durability of Polymers and Polymeric Composites. will be part of the NIST's and Underwriters Laboratories" workshop on "Service Life Prediction of Polymeric Materials: Vision for the Future". The NSF workshop consists of two sessions and discussion panel. There will be twelve speakers from academic, national laboratories, and industry. In addition, a poster-session given by graduate students is integrated as part of the overall workshop. The goal of this workshop is to bring together national eminent researchers who are actively working in the field of durability of polymeric engineering materials. They will share recent developments in modeling and experimental understanding/assessment of the degradation and life prediction of polymers and polymeric composite structures.
There are still many unresolved scientific issues on understanding the failure mechanisms in polymeric based structures under constant exposure to hostile environments and complex mechanical loading. The interaction between national and international scientists and manufacturers present at the NIST workshop is expected to have tremendous impact in resolving current durability issues in many engineering applications. The outcome of this meeting is to address some of the current challenges and identify common research priorities in durability of polymers and polymeric composites. This meeting will also open opportunities for US researchers in academia to collaborate with researchers from national laboratories and industry partners, for further enhancing current methods in predicting life performance and degradation in polymers under various loading histories. This workshop also promotes the participation of women and under-represented minorities.
Polymers and polymeric composites have been widely used in many engineering applications, from large wind turbine blades, parts of aircraft, marine vessels, civil infrastructures, to retrofitting nuclear reactor containment concrete structures. During their services, polymer and polymeric composites, in the above applications experience various loading conditions, such as intense loading-unloading period combined with constant exposure to hostile environments (i.e., freezing temperatures during winter and hot and humid environments during summer), and vulnerability to various substances diffusing through, and possibly reacting with the polymeric structures, leading to degradation of the structures. This gives rise to reliability issues in using polymers and polymeric composites in many engineering applications. This workshop entitled "Durability of Polymers and Polymeric Composites: Current Challenges and Future Prospects" brings together eminent researchers from the United States in the field of durability of polymers to share recent developments in modeling and experimental understanding/assessment of the degradation and life prediction of polymers and polymeric structures under various mechanical loading and environmental conditions. This workshop also facilitates a discussion on what we, as the research community, have seen in the currently available methods, and what should we do at the basic science and engineering levels, to further enhance our understanding of the mechanisms that lead to continuous changes in the performance of polymeric structures during their services. The one and half day of workshop (March 6-7, 2013) includes the following core activities: 1) Poster presentations by graduate students and attendees from industry provide a unique opportunity for students to present their works, networking with their peers and other engineers and researchers in the field of durability of polymers and polymeric composites. 2) Technical presentations focus on mathematical modeling and experimental works on understanding performance of polymers and polymeric composites under mechanical loading, temperature changes, and diffusion of various substances. 3) General discussions on the current knowledge of the durability of polymers, challenges in predicting life performance of polymeric structures, and future research directions to address issues related to degradation and reliability of polymeric structures. Several issues have been identified during the discussion session, with participants from academia, research labs, and industries, related to current challenges in understanding life performance of polymers and polymer composites: 1) 1) Disengagement between researchers in the fields of chemistry and mechanics leads to different focus areas between the two fields. Chemists focus on developing new polymers that target specific characteristics and functional behaviors, while the mechanicians are interested in using available polymers for many practical engineering applications. An ideal situation would be for the chemists and mechanicians to work together in designing polymers for certain applications and understanding the life performance of such polymeric structures during their services. 2) 2) Many of theoretical and experimental studies on understanding performance of polymers and polymeric composites have been done under predefined conditions at the laboratory and at a relatively short period, while during their service polymer based structures are subjected to complex loading conditions over long period. The laboratory and service conditions would be completely different; however, we are often limited by resources and time that prevent scientists/engineers to simulate real life service conditions. 3) 3) From the industry standpoint, there is urgency in manufacturing materials and launching the products. It is of course more desirable to put the products into market with detailed understanding on their expected overall performance, which requires comprehensive analyses and rigorous models, and would definitely take long time. This meeting has opened opportunities for researchers in academia to collaborate with researchers from national laboratories and industry partners for further understanding and resolving current challenges related to life performance and durability in polymers under various loading histories. Student participants have also benefited from this workshop by learning the recent advances in the modeling and experimental understanding and future directions and research needs related to durability of polymers and polymer composites. As future scientists and engineers they can prepare themselves ahead of time to continue working on resolving some of the challenges in durability of polymer and polymer composites.
