Browsing by Author "Kratz, James"
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Item Open Access Developing cure kinetics models for interleaf particle toughened epoxies(Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE), 2016-12-31) Kratz, James; Mesogitis, Tassos; Skordos, Alexandros A.; Hamerton, Ian; Partridge, Ivana K.In this study, we investigated the cure kinetics behaviour of the commercial Hexply® M21 thermoplastic interleaf epoxy resin system. Dynamic, isothermal, and cure interrupted modulated differential scanning calorimetry (mDSC) tests were used to measure the heat flow of the system, and semi-empirical models were fitted to the data. The cure kinetics model describes the cure rate satisfactorily, under both dynamic heating and isothermal conditions. The glass transition temperature was described using the DiBenedetto equation and showed that heating rate can influence formation of the network; therefore cure schedule must be controlled carefully during processing.Item Open Access Heat transfer simulation of the cure of thermoplastic particle interleaf carbon fibre epoxy prepregs(SAGE, 2018-12-13) Tassos, Mesogitis; Kratz, James; Skordos, Alexandros A.Thermochemical properties are needed to develop process models and define suitable cure cycles to convert thermosetting polymers into rigid glassy materials. Uncertainty surrounding the suitability of thermal analysis techniques and semi-empirical models developed for conventional composite materials has been raised for the new class of particle interleaf materials. This paper describes kinetics, conductivity, heat capacity and glass transition temperature measurements of HexPly® M21 particle interleaf material. Thermal models describing conventional, non-particle epoxy systems were fit to the data and validated through a thick-section cure. Results from curing experiments agree with heat transfer simulation predictions, indicating that established thermal analysis techniques and models can describe polymerisation and evolving material properties during processing of a material representing the class of interleaf toughened systems. A sensitivity study showed time savings up to about 20%, and associated energy-efficiency-productivity benefits can be achieved by using cure simulation for particle interleaf materials.