Sustainability has recently become a key issue in the design and manufacture of products, due to dwindling oil reserves and increased environmental awareness. Therefore, bio-sourced resins are suggested to be used as an alternative in order to reduce the environmental impact of composite production. This paper presents the mechanical and physico-chemical characterization and the environmental degradation evaluation of furan resin-based glass fiber reinforced polymer (bio-sourced glass fiber reinforced polymer) for structural retrofitting applications in comparison with those of an equivalent thermoset-based glass fiber reinforced polymer (petro-sourced glass fiber reinforced polymer). Epoxy resin was used as a representative for petroleum-derived synthetic thermoset. To conduct this preliminary study, the following steps were taken: (1) prepare composites made from furan and epoxy resins, (2) characterize the mechanical and physico-chemical properties of the composites, (3) study the moisture absorption, and finally, (4) evaluate the degradation of both composites when subjected to alkaline solutions which was simulated to leached concrete pore solution. The experimental results show that the use of furan resin as polymer matrix in glass fiber reinforced polymer leads to an increase in the moisture absorption and a significant decrease in the degradation in alkaline solution.
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