The inverse estimation of kinetic parameters of composite materials without using DSC data

Determining the kinetic parameters of a chemical model of the curing process in polymer composites plays an important role in the design of proper cure conditions. The employment of data obtained from the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is the main method to estimate the parameters. In this paper, the kinetic parameters are estimated utilizing an inverse heat transfer algorithm and the temperature obtained from a one-dimensional model of cure process without resorting to DSC. The six constants of the Kamal and Sourour model are estimated simultaneously for a composite material by using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. The results of this study agree well with those obtained by experimental methods.