Dear colleagues,
This paper on comparison between frontal and bulk polymerization of polymer matrix compositres using a non-dimensional solver is published in Composite Science and Technology. If you would like to take a look, full paper is avaiable at the publisher and Researchgate.
Abstract:
As frontal polymerization (FP) is being considered as a faster, more energy-efficient, out-of-autoclave manufacturing method for fiber-reinforced thermosetting-polymer-matrix composites (Robertson et al., 2018), the competition between FP and bulk polymerization (BP) is an essential component of the feasibility analysis of the FP-based manufacturing process. To that effect, we present a comparative study of FP and BP based on a nondimensional form of the reaction–diffusion equations that describe the two polymerization processes. From the nondimensional formulation of the thermo-chemical relations, we extract two parameters that involve the key quantities of the cure kinetics model, i.e., the heat of reaction, the time constant, and the activation energy. Although the analysis is general and can be adapted to a wide range of thermosetting-polymer composites, emphasis is placed on unidirectional composites made of carbon or glass fibers embedded in a dicylcopentadiene (DCPD) matrix. The competition between FP and BP is formulated in terms of the time scales involved in the two polymerization processes for the manufacturing of composites of varying sizes and fiber volume fraction values.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compscitech.2019.107832
Link to author's personalized share link for free access until November 19 2019: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1ZpgjyZzKoGVz
Abstract:
Frontal polymerization (FP) is explored as a faster and energy-efficient manufacturing method for dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) matrix, E-glass-fiber-reinforced composites through a series of numerical simulations based on a homogenized reaction-diffusion model. The simulations are carried out over a range of values of fiber volume fraction using (i) a transient, nonlinear, multi-physics finite element solver, and (ii) a semi-analytic steady-state solver. We observe that the front velocity and temperature decrease with an increase in the fiber volume fraction until a critical point is reached, beyond which FP is no longer observed as the front is quenched. To highlight the effect of the material properties of the reinforcing phase, the dependencies of the front velocity, width and maximum temperature on the fiber volume fraction obtained for glass/DCPD composites are compared to those associated with carbon/DCPD composites.