Cure Kinetics Characterization of Epoxy Resin by Piecewise Model Fitting Method

Curing process of AC531 epoxy resin was investigated through nonisothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) method. The reaction mechanisms were revealed by analyzing the activation energy on curing degree. Two types of reaction mechanisms were found in curing process with significant difference. For characterizing the complicated curing process, piecewise model method was developed to deduce the cure kinetic equations. The results indicated that piecewise model fitted the experiment data in high accuracy. Moreover, explicit mathematic expressions can be derived through piecewise model method, which can be the fundamental of other research.