Rheological model and behaviors of resin system for vacuum infusion molding process

The curing properties and chemorheological behaviors of unsaturated polyester resin syste(Palatal1777-G-4) for vacuum infusion molding process (VIMP) were studied with DSC analysis and visco experiments. A modified dual Arrhenius rheological model and an engineering viscosity model were stablished simulate the rheological behavior of the resin system. The two rheological models were compared. The compa results indicate that the modified dual Arrhenius model can provide more accurate prediction of the viscosity be the gel point，while the engineering model is more accurate after the gel point. Combining the two models accurately predict the rheological behaviors of the resin system in the vacuum infusion molding process.simulated viscosity is in good agreement with that from the experiments. The processing window of the resin system for VIMP can be well determined based on the proposed models. The results show that the optimum process temperature of the Palatal1777-G-4 resin system for VIMP is 20～38℃，at which the resin can keep the viscoless than 300 mPa·s for 30 min at least. The developed model is important for processing simulation of resiparameter optimization and quality control of VIMP for high performance composites.