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

FASCE, L. A.; AYUDE, M.A.; FLORES, H.A.; RICCARDI, C.R.

MAR DEL PLATA

Simposio; XVI Simposio Latinoamericano de Polímeros, XIV Congreso Iberoamericano de Polímeros, SLAP 2018; 2018

INTEMA

Glass reinforced epoxy (GRE) pipes are nowadays industrially manufactured by the filament winding process using internal heating technology. This study deals with the evaluation of a strategy aimed to improve the plant productivity by means of physical experiments and numerical simulations of the curing process. In previous works, we successfully modeled the curing kinetics of the actual DGEBA/MTHPABTEAC system using a mechanistic model1 and the internal heating curing process of GRE pipes by a dynamic one-dimensional model. We demonstrated that curing can be accelerated by increasing BTEAC concentration. However, this is not trivial and constitutes a key processing problem. The Increment in BTEAC concentration accelerates system gelation, reduces the reactive mixture pot life and hinders glass fibers impregnation. Furthermore, the gradual curing evolution required to assure high quality pipes is drastically affected. To solve these processing problems a combined strategy based on a reactive system formulation modified with a reactive diluent, RD, together with the optimization of the Curing cycle is comprehensively evaluated. DGEBD is selected as RD because is an aliphatic diluent of low viscosity that has the same functionality than DGEBA and can reacts with MTHPA becoming a permanent part of the part of the cross-linked network.