Development of a Cure Model for Unsaturated Polyester Resin Systems Based on Processing Conditions.

Area of Science:

• Polymer Science
• Materials Science
• Chemical Engineering

Background:

• Unsaturated polyester resins (UPRs) are vital in transportation, marine, and infrastructure composites.
• Optimizing UPR formulations requires understanding their processing behavior.
• Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) is a key technique for evaluating resin cure kinetics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the non-isothermal and isothermal curing behavior of UPRs.
• To simulate UPR curing under various processing conditions using DSC data.
• To determine the effect of temperature on cure rate and degree of cure.

Main Methods:

• Non-isothermal DSC tests conducted from 0 °C to 250 °C at varying heating/cooling rates.
• Isothermal DSC tests performed from 0 °C to 170 °C.
• Autocatalytic model utilized to simulate curing kinetics and predict degree of cure.

Main Results:

• Cure rate decreased as temperature increased from 10 °C to 170 °C, while heat of reaction increased.
• Maximum simulated degree of cure (α) reached 71.25% at 85 °C.
• At 5 °C, the maximum degree of cure (α) was below 12% due to insufficient thermal energy for crosslinking.

Conclusions:

• DSC provides critical data for optimizing UPR processing and formulation.
• Temperature significantly influences UPR cure kinetics, affecting the final material properties.
• Simulations based on DSC data enable prediction of cure behavior under different manufacturing scenarios.