Because quartz–cyanate ester
(QCE) composites are employed
to fabricate missile and aircraft radomes, retaining their structural
and electromagnetic (EM) integrity after prolonged exposure to environmental
stresses is essential for long-term deployment as radar protectors.
Therefore, in this study, QCE composite samples were subjected to
environmental conditioning tests, namely, transient temperature (transition
from −67 to 145 °C), high-temperature storage (cycling
between 35 and 85 °C), thermal shock (cycling between −55
and 100 °C), fluid contamination (immersion in mineral and turbine
oils), and humidity cycles (conditioning at 30 °C and 85% RH),
to observe the effect of conditioning on the physical, morphological,
thermal, mechanical, and dielectric properties of composites. Interfacial
damage was observed in all the conditioned samples. Samples after
fluid immersion test were found to have the highest deviation in properties
compared to unconditioned ones. Fluid diffusion led to higher surface
crack width, lower impact damaged area, and higher EM energy dissipation
(higher dielectric loss tangent). High-temperature storage tested
samples had the highest surface crack intensity, while humidity cycles
caused matrix plasticization, resulting in lower density and thermal
conductivity values. A high degree of postcuring in thermally shocked
samples resulted in brittleness of cyanate ester, leading to an increase
in density and impact damaged area. Although a slight degree of damage
is reported, the change in QCE composite properties postconditioning
is not significant enough to prevent its application as uncoated radome
materials, except for rain erosion at 150 m/s.
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