Viscosity modeling of a medium reactive unsaturated polyester resin used for liquid composite molding process

The development of new composite product for an application through liquid composite molding (LCM) process simulation requires submodels describing the raw material characteristics. The viscosity during resin cure is the major submodel required for the effective simulation of mold-filling phase of LCM process. The viscosity of the resin system during mold filling changes as the cure reaction progresses. Applied process temperature also affects the viscosity of the resin system. Hence, a submodel describing the resin viscosity as a function of extent of cure and process temperature is required for the LCM process simulation. In this study, a correlation for viscosity during curing of medium reactive unsaturated polyester resin, which is mostly used for the LCM process, has been proposed as a function of temperature and degree of cure. The viscosity and the degree of cure of reacting resin system at different temperatures were measured by performing isothermal rheological and isothermal differential scanning calorimetry experiments, respectively. A nonlinear-regression analysis of viscosity and degree of cure data were performed to quantify the dependence of viscosity on temperature and extent of cure reaction. Comparisons of model solutions with our experimental data showed that the proposed empirical model is capable of capturing resin viscosity as a function of extent of cure and temperature qualitatively as well as quantitatively. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012