Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

5-31-1983

Degree Name

Master of Science in Chemical Engineering - (M.S.)

Department

Chemical Engineering and Chemistry

First Advisor

Ching-Rong Huang

Second Advisor

Chen-Chong Lin

Third Advisor

George Y. Lei

Abstract

A resin metering criterion has been developed for processing the prepregs of CTBN-EPOXY resin in which the resin content can be controlled within close tolerances. This criterion was obtained by numerically simulating the flow of CTBN-EPDXY resin in the blade-type metering device at room temperature. The Newtonion case of CTBN-EPOXY resin was selected for the study to avoid dealing with more complicated flow equations. A methodology of using the penalty function/finite element formulation was developed to solve the steady state Navior-Stokes equation.

The rheological data show that the CTBN-EPOXY resin is a non-Newtonion fluid at low shear rate. On the other hand, the rheological properties resemble Newtonion behavior at shear rates above 10sec-1. The flow curve was nicely fitted by Huang's model.

The numerical solutions of momentum equations show that the resin content on the cloth is relatively insensitive to cloth speed, but that of blade width. The resin content increases proportionally to the blade width.

The results for the resin content and the minimum resin feed rate were used to set up the resin metering criterion as a valuable design tool for processing the prepregs.

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