Modeling and optimization of liquid composite molding process with dicyclopentadiene resin

Abstract

Demands for composite materials for civil applications in addition to military applications have been significantly increased. In the application for civil industries, it not only requires for a weight reduction but the efforts for achieving safety and a reduction of manufacturing cost has been sufficiently progressed. Dicyclopentadiene is a low viscosity resin which forms a poly-dicyclopentadiene rapidly through Ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). This poly-dicyclopentadiene has outstanding properties of, low-temperature, water and impact resistances. Despite there are efforts for research developments of liquid molding technologies, dicyclopentadienes unique curing behavior and an unstable reaction in an atmospheric condition shows that the need for researches about an addition of reinforcements to the resin during the manufacturing process must be increased. The liquid molding apparatus which can be used with an addition of reinforcements was designed based upon the studies of the curing kinetics using the differential scanning calorimetry. Two different liquid molding methods have been developed depending on the resin viscosity, fiber volume fraction and the length. This apparatus was used for manufacturing samples where the mechanical properties were examined. Additionally, numerical analysis was performed in order to predict the manufacturing time depending on the resins viscosity and the fiber volume fraction.