Investigation of curing characteristics of carbon fiber/epoxy composites cured with low‐energy electron beam

Abstract

To solve the penetration depth of carbon fiber/epoxy prepreg and irradiation dose uniformity by low-energy E-Beam under 125 keV, the both-side irradiation curing of prepreg was investigated. The results show that there is little thermal effect during the low-energy electron beam irradiation curing process, even though the irradiation dosage reached 300 kGy, only 46.2 C can be tested on the prepreg surface. Due to the low curing temperature, the degree of cure of prepreg was only 61.8% at 300 kGy level of irradiation, and the glasstransition temperature (T g ) was only 48.6 C. The degree of cure and T g can be increased sharply by thermal postcure. After being postcured at 160 C for 30 min, the degree of cure and the T g of prepreg reached 98.5% and 170.4 C, respectively. Interlaminar shear strength testing result indicate that the fabrication process of the composite layer by layer curing by the low-energy E-Beam is a promising cure approach. POLYM. COMPOS., 36:1731COMPOS., 36: -1737COMPOS., 36: , 2015

Investigation of irradiation dose rate on curing characteristics of carbon fiber/polymer composites by low‐energy electron beam

“…Guasti and Rosi combined low‐energy E‐Beam curing process with wet winding technology and conducted preliminary experimental study . Researchers at Xi'an Jiaotong University further reduced the E‐Beam energy to 125 keV with an improved operability during in situ curing, and proposed the double‐sided irradiation method to obtain a controllable cross‐linking structure along the prepreg thickness direction …”

“…In this process, the curing characteristics of irradiated prepregs have been proved strongly related to the interlaminar bonding quality of the laminates, and the curing characteristics can be affected by the E‐Beam irradiation parameters including irradiation energy, irradiation dose, and IDR . For low‐energy E‐Beam curing technology, earlier researches have explored the effects of irradiation energy and irradiation dose on the cuing thickness, curing degree, and postcuring behaviors of the prepregs . However, not much focus has been given to the IDR's influence on the curing characteristics of prepregs.…”

“…18 Researchers at Xi'an Jiaotong University further reduced the E-Beam energy to 125 keV with an improved operability during in situ curing, and proposed the double-sided irradiation method to obtain a controllable cross-linking structure along the prepreg thickness direction. 2,[19][20][21] In situ fabrication technology means that the single layer prepreg is irradiated by the irradiation source and then placed layer by layer to fabricate laminates. In this process, the curing characteristics of irradiated prepregs have been proved strongly related to the interlaminar bonding quality of the laminates, 21,22 and the curing characteristics can be affected by the E-Beam irradiation parameters including irradiation energy, irradiation dose, and IDR.…”

“…23 For low-energy E-Beam curing technology, earlier researches have explored the effects of irradiation energy and irradiation dose on the cuing thickness, curing degree, and postcuring behaviors of the prepregs. [19][20][21] However, not much focus has been given to the IDR's influence on the curing characteristics of prepregs. So, in this paper, the influence of IDR on temperature of the lowenergy E-Beam-irradiated prepreg was tested, based on which the E-Beam-induced curing degree was investigated.…”

Irradiation dose control for polymer‐matrix composites fabricated by in situ curing with low‐energy electron beam

“…To further reduce the energy of EB and shielding cost, and improve the operability during in‐suit curing, researchers at our laboratory in Xi'an Jiaotong University performed fundamental research on EB curing with energies lower than 150 keV. They have investigated the effect of the EB exposure dose on the curing homogeneity and reported that for low‐energy cured composites, layer‐on‐layer irradiation, and irradiation from two sides could be more efficient to obtain a homogeneous crosslinking structure.…”