Rheological Evolution and Viscoelastic Transition of Ambient-Curing Epoxy-Urethane Reactive Polymer Composites

Ambient-curing epoxy-urethane reactive polymer composites require a balance between initial flowability and subsequent structure buildup. In this study, epoxy-urethane reactive polymer composites containing precipitated calcium carbonate were prepared and referred to as EUPC formulations. Their rheological evolution was characterized by flow sweep, temperature sweep, time sweep, three-interval thixotropy tests (3ITT), amplitude sweep, and oscillatory time sweep. The formulations exhibited distinct initial flow resistance and strong temperature sensitivity, with apparent viscosity decreasing as temperature increased. During ambient curing, viscosity increased continuously, indicating progressive rheological buildup under the selected testing conditions. The 3ITT results showed high-shear-induced apparent viscosity reduction followed by recovery-stage viscosity evolution after returning to the low-shear condition, indicating that the recovery index should be interpreted as an apparent post-shear recovery index rather than a purely thixotropic recovery parameter. Oscillatory measurements revealed a gradual transition from viscous-dominated to more elastic-dominated behavior, and the apparent gel time followed the sequence EUPC-2 < EUPC-4 < EUPC-1 < EUPC-3 < EUPC-5 < EUPC-6. These results indicate that EUPC processability and structure buildup should be evaluated by integrating initial viscosity, temperature sensitivity, post-shear response, and operational viscous-to-elastic transition.