Influence of a reactive diluent on curing kinetics, internal curing process and mechanical performance of filament wound glass fiber reinforced epoxy composite pipes

MARÍA A AYUDE; HUGO A. FLORES; LAURA A. FASCE; HUGO A. FLORES; LAURA A. FASCE; CARMEN C. RICCARDI; CARMEN C. RICCARDI; MARÍA A AYUDE

POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE

JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2019 vol. 59 p. 344 - 354

0032-3888

Glass reinforced epoxy (GRE) pipes are nowadays industrially manufactured by the filament windingprocess using internal heating technology. This study deals with the comprehensive evaluation of astrategy aimed to improve the plant productivity by means of physical experiments, mechanical testsand numerical simulations of the curing process. The reactive system is composed by diglycidyl ether ofbisphenol A (DGEBA), methyltetrahydrophtalic anhydride (MTHPA) and benzyltriethyl ammoniumchloride (BTEAC) used as initiator. An increase in BTEAC concentration in system formulation leads to areduction in curing times of GRE pipes. The processing problems associated with this increment areproposed to be solved by the incorporation of a reactive diluent (RD) together with the optimization ofthe curing cycle. The effects that different amounts of 1,4-butanedioldiglycidyl ether (DGEBD) added asRD exerts on system viscosity, copolymerization kinetics mechanism, curing process and properties ofmatrix, laminated composites and GRE pipes are deeply analyzed. Results demonstrate that if a 10 wt%RD is used, not only the strategy turns out to be feasible but also GRE pipes performance is improved.