Thermo-rheological and kinetic characterization and modeling of an epoxy vitrimer based on polyimine exchange.

The present study describes the development of cure kinetics and chemo-rheological models for an epoxy vitrimer based on polyimine exchange to elucidate the potential in terms of processing and accurate process selection. Reaction kinetics is investigated using differential scanning calorimetry. A good agreement between the model and data can be demonstrated for different stoichiometries by selecting a parallel reaction approach consisting of an th-order and an autocatalytic approach.

Development of a High-Fidelity Framework to Describe the Process-Dependent Viscoelasticity of a Fast-Curing Epoxy Matrix Resin including Testing, Modelling, Calibration and Validation.

Fast-curing epoxy resins enable substantial reduction of cycle times during production of thermoset polymer matrix composites. Due to the snap-cure behaviour, both characterisation and processing of these resins are associated with high complexity which motivates the development of a high-fidelity framework for the prediction of the process-dependent behaviour ranging from experiment to model validation. In order to determine influence of time, temperature, and degree of cure, a multitude of rheometer and dynamic mechanical analysis experiments are conducted and evaluated.