Cure characterization and process modeling of soy-based composites

"This work deals with cure characteristics of soy-based resin system, fabrication of pultruded soy-based composites, and analysis of flexible polymeric foams. In the first part of this work, the cure kinetics and rheology of the soy-based resin system were studied. The cure kinetics models of the different resin formulations were developed. A neural network based model was developed to provide an efficient approach for rheology characterization. The analytical expressions of cure kinetics and rheology developed for soy-based epoxy resin system can be readily applied into numerical modeling of composite manufacturing processes. In the second part of this work, the analytical cure kinetics model developed for the soy-based epoxy resin system was applied in pultrusion process modeling. A finite element model was established and implemented in the commercial ABAQUS code to predict the temperature and the degree of cure of the pultruded soy-based composites. An on-line cure monitoring system was developed to measure the temperature profile in the pultrusion die. The numerical results show good t agreement with the experimental findings. The soy-based resin system is a viable alternative to petroleum based epoxy resins for the pultrusion process. In the third part of this work, a novel constitutive model for elastomeric foam material based on neural network is presented. The neural network approach provides an efficient constitutive model and can be readily implemented into commercial finite element packages. It has the potential to be used in various applications related to analysis of polymeric foam materials"--Abstract, page iii.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering

Grantor

University of Missouri--Rolla

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• Liang, Guanghui

• Mechanical Engineering

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/doctoral_dissertations/14

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsmine.mst.edu:doctoral_dissertations-1016