Design and Validation of a Dielectric Method-Based Composite Material Curing Monitoring Platform

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Chemical Engineering
• Polymer Science

Background:

• Effective monitoring of composite material curing is essential for optimizing repair patch performance.
• Existing online monitoring techniques for composite curing often have limitations in tracking patch development.
• Dielectric methods offer a promising avenue for advanced composite curing analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel dielectric monitoring platform for composite material repair patch curing.
• To assess the platform's capability in measuring ionic viscosity and curing index during bag molding.
• To correlate dielectric measurements with established curing degree tests.

Main Methods:

• A specialized platform integrating temperature, pressure, and dielectric signal control and acquisition was developed.
• Ionic viscosity of T300 2019B composites was measured during bag molding curing.
• Curing index was analyzed and correlated with Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) cured degree tests.

Main Results:

• The dielectric monitoring platform demonstrated consistent trends in ionic viscosity measurements across multiple trials.
• Correlation coefficients between ionic viscosity curves exceeded 0.96, indicating high reliability.
• Observed changes in the curing index closely aligned with the DSC-determined curing degree.

Conclusions:

• The developed dielectric monitoring platform reliably and accurately measures the ionic viscosity of composite repair patches.
• This technology enables effective real-time monitoring of the curing process for composite repair applications.
• The platform provides valuable data for optimizing curing procedures and ensuring repair patch quality.