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Anisotropic Dielectric Properties of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites during Microwave Curing

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Abstract

Microwave cuing technology is a promising alternative to conventional autoclave curing technology in high efficient and energy saving processing of polymer composites. Dielectric properties of composites are key parameters related to the energy conversion efficiency during the microwave curing process. However, existing methods of dielectric measurement cannot be applied to the microwave curing process. This paper presented an offline test method to solve this problem. Firstly, a kinetics model of the polymer composites under microwave curing was established based on differential scanning calorimetry to describe the whole curing process. Then several specially designed samples of different feature cure degrees were prepared and used to reflect the dielectric properties of the composite during microwave curing. It was demonstrated to be a feasible plan for both test accuracy and efficiency through extensive experimental research. Based on this method, the anisotropic complex permittivity of a carbon fiber/epoxy composite during microwave curing was accurately determined. Statistical results indicated that both the dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the composite increased at the initial curing stage, peaked at the maximum reaction rate point and decreased finally during the microwave curing process. Corresponding mechanism has also been systematically investigated in this work.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 51575275), and jointly supported by the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (Grant no. KYCX17_0282); The authors sincerely appreciate the continuous support provided by our industrial collaborators.

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  1. College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Linglin Zhang, Yingguang Li & Jing Zhou

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  1. Linglin Zhang
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Correspondence to Yingguang Li.

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Zhang, L., Li, Y. & Zhou, J. Anisotropic Dielectric Properties of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites during Microwave Curing. Appl Compos Mater 25, 1339–1356 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10443-017-9669-6

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