Cure kinetics analysis and simulation of silicone adhesives

A nonlinear transient heat transfer finite element model based on commercial finite element software, ABAQUS, is developed to simulate the curing process of silicone adhesive. The curing reaction process and specific heat of the silicone adhesive were investigated using a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to obtain material parameters for numerical simulations. Curing reaction kinetics was derived. Using the user subroutine HETVAL of ABAQUS, temperature distributions inside silicone can be evaluated by solving the heat conduction equations including internal heat generation produced by curing reactions. Good agreement between experimental data and numerical analysis by ABAQUS is obtained.