TY - JOUR
T1 - Rapid multiple-front polymerization of fiber-reinforced polymer composites
AU - Centellas, P. J.
AU - Yourdkhani, M.
AU - Vyas, S.
AU - Koohbor, B.
AU - Geubelle, P. H.
AU - Sottos, N. R.
N1 - Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the NSF LEAP HI, United States, grant #1933932 as well as partial support from the AFOSR Center for Excellence, United States : Self-Healing to Morphogenic Manufacturing award FA9550-20-1-0194. We thank Greg Milner and Lee Booher of the UIUC Talbot Lab machine shop for assistance with tensile samples preparation and Jenny Chu and Aditya Gupta for assistance with layup materials preparation. The authors extend gratitude to Prof. Scott White for helping to conceive this work, his guidance, and helpful discussions.
Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the NSF LEAP HI, United States , grant # 1933932 as well as partial support from the AFOSR Center for Excellence, United States : Self-Healing to Morphogenic Manufacturing award FA9550-20-1-0194 . We thank Greg Milner and Lee Booher of the UIUC Talbot Lab machine shop for assistance with tensile samples preparation and Jenny Chu and Aditya Gupta for assistance with layup materials preparation. The authors extend gratitude to Prof. Scott White for helping to conceive this work, his guidance, and helpful discussions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - Frontal polymerization (FP) is an out-of-autoclave, self-sustaining cure process that enables rapid and energy-efficient manufacturing of composites compared to conventional processes. Prior FP demonstrations for both polymer and composite materials rely on one polymerization front to achieve full cure. In this work, we investigate the effect of multiple polymerization fronts on the composite cure time, quality, and mechanical performance. Localized void formation, panel thickness increase, and thermal spike are measured between two merging fronts and observed to have a detrimental impact on composite performance. Numerical simulations guide the mitigation of the thermal spike by modifying the layup from thermally insulated boundaries (TIB) to thermally conductive boundaries (TCB). Panels manufactured with TCB successfully mitigate all adverse phenomena at the merging fronts, leading to improved composite mechanical properties. A 5-fold reduction in cure time from ca. 5 min for one-front TIB panels to ca. 1 min for two-front TCB panels is achieved.
AB - Frontal polymerization (FP) is an out-of-autoclave, self-sustaining cure process that enables rapid and energy-efficient manufacturing of composites compared to conventional processes. Prior FP demonstrations for both polymer and composite materials rely on one polymerization front to achieve full cure. In this work, we investigate the effect of multiple polymerization fronts on the composite cure time, quality, and mechanical performance. Localized void formation, panel thickness increase, and thermal spike are measured between two merging fronts and observed to have a detrimental impact on composite performance. Numerical simulations guide the mitigation of the thermal spike by modifying the layup from thermally insulated boundaries (TIB) to thermally conductive boundaries (TCB). Panels manufactured with TCB successfully mitigate all adverse phenomena at the merging fronts, leading to improved composite mechanical properties. A 5-fold reduction in cure time from ca. 5 min for one-front TIB panels to ca. 1 min for two-front TCB panels is achieved.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.compositesa.2022.106931
DO - 10.1016/j.compositesa.2022.106931
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85129468307
SN - 1359-835X
VL - 158
JO - Composites - Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
JF - Composites - Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
M1 - 106931
ER -