Flexural Properties of an Organic Olefin-Based Thermosetting Dicyclopentadiene Resin for Superconducting Magnet Impregnation

An organic olefin-based thermosetting dicyclopentadiene (DCP) resin, C₁₀H₁₂, commercially available in Japan as TELENE from RIMTEC Corporation, has a viscosity less than one tenth of that of the CTD-101K epoxy resin. The TELENE can tolerate larger strains than CTD-101K and can have a higher heat capacity by mixing it with ceramic powder. Using the TELENE as the impregnation resin is expected to reduce the number of quench training of Nb3Sn magnets. In this paper, the flexural properties of the pure and mixed TELENE was measured before and after gamma-ray irradiation and compared to that of the CTD-101K. Three powders of Gd₂O₃, Gd₂O₂S, and HoCu₂ were mixed with the pure TELENE, respectively. The gamma-ray irradiation was performed using Cobalt-60 source at the Takasaki Advanced Radiation Research Institute, Japan, up to 25 MGy at room temperature. The pure TELENE exhibits plastic deformation before irradiation and increases in strength up to 2 MGy irradiation. The flexural modulus of pure and mixed TELENE increased continuously up to 25 MGy irradiation.