Investigation on the Aging Characteristics of FRP Composites Poles and Crossarms

The fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) are increasingly used in poles and crossarms with good insulating and mechanical properties. In this paper, the aging resistance characteristics of various materials with different processing methods were investigated in this paper, including FRP composite poles and crossarms, the modified polyurethane (PU) resin samples bars and PU resin/glass fiber composite samples bars under the multiple environment. The multi-factor aging experimental chamber is used to simulate the long-term complex operating environment. The fiber bragg grating (FBG) strain sensors were implanted to monitor the strain of poles and crossarms in real time. The results show that after 5000h multi-factor accelerated aging test, the retention bending modulus of PU and PU composite materials samples were higher than 90%; especially for the samples under pultrusion process, its flexural modulus was up to 95.8%. The performance of aging resistance of FRP composites made by pultrusion process is optimal. The strain values at the maximum displacement of crossarm and pole are less than 2
⁰
/
₀₀
after 5000h. The strain value of crossarm is slightly greater than that of pole. Overall, the FRP composite poles and crossarms are of good anti-aging performance.