Modeling nonisothermal solidification of epoxy resins

Abstract

In the last ten years a new technology has come increasingly into use: the chemical molding of reactive oligomers which produces simultaneously the material and the finished product [1]. The technological cycle includes partial solidification of the mixture in the mixing chamber, pumping through channels into the mold, final solidification of the composition in the mold. The nature of the processes of heat and mass exchange at different stages has a decisive influence on the technological regimes of conversion, the quality of the material, and the operational characteristics of the product. Heat and mass exchange can be correctly described only with the use of a kinetic model that is perfectly adequate to the real process. The present article deals with the solidification of epoxy resin by an amine-type solidifier, viz., metaphenylene diamine. For this system a kinetic model was suggested in [2–4]. We investigate its mathematical correctness, the qualitative behavior of the solution, and provide experimental confirmation of the adequacy of the description of the kinetics.