TY - JOUR A1 - Stark, Wolfgang A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - McHugh, J. T1 - Cure state detection for pre-cured carbon-fibre epoxy prepreg (CFC) using temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC) JF - Polymer Testing N2 - Carbon-fibre prepregs have found widespread use in lightweight applications. They are based on a carbon-fibre fabric impregnated with reactive epoxy resin. Prepreg materials are generally pre-cured so that they have a higher molecular weight than typical resins in order to reduce resin flow, which facilitates storage and later processing properties. The measurements were carried out using commercially available materials and follow the published DMA investigations of the same material. TMDSC was used to find the correlation between curing conditions, the degree of cure and glass transition temperature. TMDSC has the advantage over standard DSC that it enables better determination of the glass transition temperature, which is often accompanied by an exothermic curing reaction, and thus overshadowed. The influence of the amplitude of temperature modulation was tested in preliminary experiments. For non-cured material a glass transition temperature of approximately 0 °C was determined; whereas for the totally cured material it was approximately 230 °C. The changes in degree of cure, temperature of actual glass transition and post-reaction are given as a function of curing time at 180 °C. The correlation between actual glass transition temperature and degree of cure is derived. KW - Prepreg KW - Carbon fibre KW - Glass transition KW - Degree of curing KW - DSC KW - TMDSC PY - 2013 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymertesting.2013.07.007 SN - 0142-9418 VL - 32 IS - 7 SP - 1261 EP - 1272 PB - Elsevier Science CY - Amsterdam [u.a.] AN - OPUS4-29067 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stark, Wolfgang A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - McHugh, J. T1 - Carbon-fibre epoxy prepreg (CFC) curing in an autoclave analogue process controlled by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) JF - Polymer Testing N2 - Carbon fibre prepregs have found widespread application in lightweight constructions. They are based on a carbon-fibre fabric impregnated with reactive epoxy resin. DMA measurements under temperature conditions similar to an autoclave programme were carried out using commercially available prepreg material with a high glass transition temperature. The characteristic of the temperature programme was a dynamic heating segment at 1.5 K/min followed by a longer isothermal segment at 180 °C. The courses of the storage modulus E', loss modulus E'' and tanδ were recorded. The measuring frequency was varied between 1 Hz and 33.3 Hz. Gelation and vitrification are assigned. The influence of the measuring frequency on the time to vitrification and the correlation with DSC are discussed. The reaction does not end even after 10 h curing at 180 °C, which is interpreted as the slow cessation of the reaction caused by vitrification. KW - Prepreg KW - CFC KW - Curing KW - DMA KW - DSC KW - Autoclave KW - Gelation KW - Vitrification KW - Glass transition PY - 2013 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymertesting.2013.09.014 SN - 0142-9418 VL - 32 IS - 8 SP - 1487 EP - 1494 PB - Elsevier Science CY - Amsterdam [u.a.] AN - OPUS4-29479 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -