Long-term behaviour of GFRP pipes: Reducing the prediction test duration

The certification of glass-fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) piping systems is regulated by normative standards in which test series of 10,000 h are required to estimate the residual properties at the end of the expected life (normally, 50 years). In this paper, the possibility to reduce the test duration, whilst maintaining an equivalent prediction of long-term properties, is discussed. Experimental results from standard test procedures conducted on GFRP pipes of four different types and respective data analysis support this possibility. The estimation error when using only data from shorter tests is consistently less than 10% if compared to the standard methods.