Abstract

Fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) products are light weighing and strong. These his materials find extensive applications in various engineering fields and also as sensor metariasl. Curing of this resin is a key to obtain FRP Products. Various factors including Gel time (Tgel) and peak exothermic temperature (Tpeak) are the critical factors that directly affects the curing process. Tgel is the indicator for the commencement of setting (polymer cross-linking) while Tpeak talks about the shrinkage and cracking of the polymer. This research work finds the Tgel and Tpeak for the curing of UP resin based isophthalic acid. The Catalyst MEKP (methyl ethyl ketone peroxide). The accelerator cobalt octoate (Cosct) were used for the curing process. Results showed strong interactions between the process variables mentioned above. The process was anoptimization to achieve a combination of Tgel and Tpeak within the regime of experimentation. Mathematical models were developed using regression for both peak temperature and gel time. Confirmatory experiments were performed to validate the predicted results.

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