The thesis contains a background and reflections section, an introduction, and three appended articles. The first section is reserved for some of the background and basics on polymers and polymer composites and a discussion on their effect on our everyday lives. The introduction gives a brief recap of the project. The articles contain the research that was performed on the thermal oxidation of thermosetting polyimides and their composites during the project.

The first article covered the thermal oxidative degradation of satin weave and thin-ply composites made by resin transfer molding with carbon fibers and thermosetting polyimide. The degradation was studied by weight loss measurements and X-ray computed microtomography. The weight loss measurements showed that the initial desorption stage during ageing followed Fickian behavior and the proposed model. It was also observed that the satin weave composites formed crack clusters that grew into a network of cracks, voids and delaminations throughout the specimens as the ageing time progressed, while the thin-ply composites only formed delaminations at the free edges.

The second manuscript studied the behavior of the neat polyimide resin when aged for up to 1500 hours in ambient air, and compared it with a newly developed polyimide formulation, with slightly altered chemical composition. The reduced amount of internal crosslinkers in the newer formulation was expected to enhance the fracture toughness of the material. Three-point bending, differential scanning calorimetry, dilatometry, weight loss, light optical microscopy and nanoindentation experiments were performed and highlighted the differences in the thermal and mechanical properties of the two formulations. A slight increase in the fracture toughness was observed, while the glass transition of the new formulation had decreased.

The third manuscript was aimed at continuing the discussion from the second article on the differences between the two thermosetting polyimides. Thermogravimetric scans showed that the polyimide formulations behaved very similarly under thermal oxidative tests. The initial analysis gave indications that the model could capture well the degradation at high temperatures, but is not adequate in predicting long-term degradation at temperatures around 288–400 °C.