Identification of moisture affected mechanical properties of polymer matrix materials by the employment of samples with moisture gradients

The article explores the possibility to identify the moisture affected mechanical properties of polymer matrix materials by the employment of samples with moisture gradients. The identification is based on the use of a weakly coupled diffuso-mechanical model. A coupled tensile-bending test configuration is considered. It is shown that tensile and bending tests can be decoupled when the elastic properties of the matrix are polynomial functions of the moisture content. Tensile and bending tests in samples with moisture gradients are compared in terms of identification times, leading to a significant reduction of the identification time compared to moisture-saturated samples.