Case studies
Failure analysis of composite parts

Survey results

Structure: 20 m ³ glass-polyester tank.

Environment: containing: iron perchloride pH 1.1.

operating temperature: – 15 to + 35 °C.

Rupture: 10 months after start-up, the tank shell broke cleanly (see figure 7 ).

Indices

When a composite wall breaks in contact with an acidic medium, this suggests chemical degradation of the material.

Analyses...