TOUGHENED TACKIFIERS FOR LOW-TEMPERATURE CURE VARTM COMPOSITES

摘要

Vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) holds great promise as a lower cost composite manufacturing method. However, finding a way to improve fracture toughness of composites produced by VARTM is an impediment to increased use of this process. Conventional approaches to resin toughening cause an increase in resin viscosity that is not desirable in VARTM processing. This problem is magnified when resins are infused and cured at low temperature. To address these issues, new toughened tackifier resins have been developed, based on crosslinked elastomer particles, This study evaluates the effects of particle level in the tackifier on the fracture toughness of two different low-temperature infused/cured VARTM laminates. Fracture toughness was improved, while resin infusion was not adversely affected. Despite the increases in toughness, laminate thermal and flexural properties were maintained.