Comparison of the mechanical and physical properties of a carbon fibre epoxy composite manufactured by resin transfer moulding using conventional and microwave heating

Abstract

2008) "Comparison of the mechanical and physical properties of a carbon fibre epoxy composite manufactured by resin transfer moulding using conventional and microwave heating". Composites Science and Technology,, [1854][1855][1856][1857][1858][1859][1860][1861] Comparison of the mechanical and physical properties of a carbon fibre epoxy composite manufactured by resin transfer moulding using conventional and microwave heating AbstractMicrowave processing holds great potential for improving current composite manufacturing techniques, substantially reducing cure cycle times, energy requirements and operational costs. In this paper, microwave heating was incorporated into the resin transfer moulding technique. Through the use of microwave heating, a 50% cure cycle time reduction was achieved. The mechanical and physical properties of the produced carbon fibre/epoxy composites were compared to those manufactured by conventional resin transfer moulding. Mechanical testing showed similar values of flexural moduli and flexural strength for the two types of composites after normalisation of the corresponding data to a common fibre volume fraction. A 9% increase of the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) was observed for the microwave cured composites. This enhancement in ILSS is attributed to a lowering of resin viscosity in the initial stage of the curing process, which was also confirmed via scanning electron microscopy by means of improved fibre wetting and less fibre pull-out. Furthermore, both types of composites yielded minimal void content ( properties of the produced carbon fibre/epoxy composites were compared to those manufactured by conventional resin transfer moulding. Mechanical testing showed similar values of flexural moduli and flexural strength for the two types of composites after normalisation of the corresponding data to a common fibre volume fraction. A 9% increase of the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) was observed for the microwave cured composites. This enhancement in ILSS is attributed to a lowering of resin viscosity in the initial stage of the curing process, which was also confirmed via scanning electron microscopy by means of improved fibre wetting and less fibre pull-out. Furthermore, both types of composites yielded minimal void content (<2%). Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis revealed comparable glass transition temperatures for composites produced by both methods. A 15 °C shift in the position of the ȕ-transition peak was observed between thermally and microwave cured composites, suggesting an alteration in the cross-linking path followed.

Variable cavity volume tooling for high-performance resin infusion moulding

“…The upper value obtained through the non-optimized process (47 ± 1 GPa) (Fig. 5) exceeds the level obtained through VARIM [26] and RTM [29] and is in alignment with values observed for autoclave processing [28]. The optimized value 45 ± 1 GPa (Run CR of Fig.…”

A comparative experiment for the analysis of microwave and thermal process induced strains of carbon fiber/bismaleimide composite materials

“…The calculation is equation (2). Constant A is the saturation ionization, and B is related to the excitation and ionization energies.…”

“…The strong demands drive the aerospace industry to searching new curing technologies to replace the traditional thermal processing. Microwave curing technology, as one of the out-of-autoclave processes, is attracting more attention in solving those problems [2].…”

Numerical simulations of residual stress and inhomogeneous conductivity effects in CNT-filled resins cured by electric field

“…In order to achieve more uniform curing of the thermosetting resin, internal heating via an electric field has attracted considerable attention because it allows the material to be heated from the inside. Compared with conventional external heating, it has been reported that internal heating leads to improved mechanical properties [4][5][6][7], adhesive bonding [8], and heating efficiency, as well as shorter curing cycles [9][10][11]. It is possible to increase the amount of heat generated by internal heating, such as microwave or Joule heating, by adding conductive fillers like carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [12][13][14] or carbon black [15] to the uncured thermosetting resin.…”