|
NISCAIR ONLINE PERIODICALS REPOSITORY (NOPR) >
NISCAIR PUBLICATIONS >
Research Journals >
Indian Journal of Engineering and Materials Sciences (IJEMS) >
IJEMS Vol.18 [2011] >
IJEMS Vol.18(1) [February 2011] >
| Title: | Curing studies of unsaturated polyester resin used in FRP products |
| Authors: | Waigaonkar, Sachin
Babu, B J C
Rajput, Amit |
| Keywords: | Curing
FRP
Gel time
Peak exothermic temperature
Process optimization
Unsaturated polyester |
| Issue Date: | Feb-2011 |
| Publisher: | NISCAIR-CSIR, India |
| Abstract: | Fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) products being strong and light in weight,
find extensive applications in automobiles, marine, structural and household components.
Unsaturated polyester (UP) resin is a principle binder material used in FRP
products. Curing of UP resin is a key for successful FRP processing. Gel time (tgel) and peak exothermic
temperature (θpeak) are critical measures of curing of resin. tgel indicates commencement
of polymer cross-linking (setting) while θpeak controls shrinkage and
cracking of polymer. This paper aims to predict the tgel and θpeak during cure of UP resin. The
weight percent of methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP) as catalyst, cobalt
octoate (Coct) as an accelerator, calcium carbonate (CaCO3)
as filler and glass fibers as reinforcements are used as process variables. The
variations in tgel and
θpeak are approximated by regression equations. Strong
interactions are found between the process variables. The process optimization is
made to achieve a desired combination of tgel
and θpeak within the regime of experimentation. Confirmatory
experiments are performed to validate the predicted results. |
| Page(s): | 31-39 |
| CC License: |  CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India |
| ISSN: | 0975-1017 (Online); 0971-4588 (Print) |
| Source: | IJEMS Vol.18(1) [February 2011]
|
|
