4 ms·
Fiberglass/FRP is an interesting one. I believe the limiting factor there would be that the polymers used would slowly degrade/weaken over time due to chemical
by elil17 4y ago
Fiberglass/FRP is an interesting one. I believe the limiting factor there would be that the polymers used would slowly degrade/weaken over time due to chemical aging. Fiberglass boats last up to 50 years but that is in a harsher environment - not sure how long you could go on land. Perhaps some polymers could be formulated to last that long, I'm not sure.
- mikem170 4y agoUV from sunlight degrades fiberglass/FRP over time. I believe that boats are painted to protect them from this, and need to be recoated periodically because the uv sunlight will degrade the paint eventually, also.
- elil17 4y agoSeems unlikely that you’d have a reliable source of paint for 1000 years, which might be the limiting factor. But there’s always some rate of chain scission, even in the absence of UV/water/whatever. I just have no idea whether that has a meaningful impact on material properties over 1000 years.
- heavyset_go 4y agoI feel like if you're really hard pressed for a UV blocker you could just use mud.
- svachalek 4y agoYeah I've seen old boats turn to dust. UV utterly destroys fiberglass given a little time.
- dieselgate 4y agoThey can last a lot longer than that but that’s about the duration that frp has existed for boats, probably early ‘60s is when production boats started to use frp hulls. Frp is great for fuel tanks and exhaust systems - it’s superior to stainless for these applications (corrosion resistance being key factor). But yes as mentioned by sibling UV will definitely degrade