Cure Characterization of Pultruded Soy-based Composites

Abstract

Polymer matrix composites using renewable resources are currently of great interest. A novel soy-based resin system for pultrusion was synthesized at University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR). Due to relatively low reactivity of soy-based resin and short curing time of pultrusion, it is important to set up the process parameters properly in order to obtain a high quality pultruded product. In the present work, a combination of experimental and numerical methods is used to investigate the effect of pultrusion process variables on the cure of composites. A mathematical model has been developed and implemented in the commercial ABAQUS finite element package to predict the temperature and degree of cure of soy-based composites. The kinetic parameters of the soy-based epoxy resins are obtained from a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). Glass fiber-reinforced composite samples are manufactured using a pultrusion machine. For experimental verification, an online monitoring system is used to measure the temperature profiles inside the die. The degrees of cure of pultruded soy-based composites are measured by DSC. The experimental findings are in good agreement with the finite element prediction. The results indicate that the novel soy-based epoxy resin system is suitable for application in the pultrusion process.

Cure kinetic study of epoxidized hemp oil cured with a multiple catalytic system

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Heat transfer simulation and analysis of mandrel for heated-mandrel winding method of tapered shell

“…1,2 Also, heated-mandrel winding using layered curing is beneficial for discharging excess resin, which results in lowering the gel content in the shell. Therefore, this method is more suitable for highpressure shell formation.…”

Pultrusion of a vertical axis wind turbine blade part-I: 3D thermo-chemical process simulation

“…In addition to the theoretical modelling of the pultrusion process, experimental studies on the pultrusion of various composite profiles such as rods, plates, I-beams etc. have been carried out in [20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Pultrusion of an I-beam was numerically modelled in [22][23][24] and the predicted temperature and cure degree values were compared with measurements.…”