Measurement of the degree of cure of carbon fiber epoxy composite materials

Abstract

In this study, a dielectric cure monitoring system which consists of an electric circuit, a sensor and a personal computer was developed to on-line monitor the dielectric properties of carbon fiber epoxy composite materials. Also, the kinetic model of carbon fiber epoxy composite materials was developed by curve fitting of the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) data. The start and end points of cure and the relationship between the dissipation factor and the degree of cure were obtained by comparing the dissipation factor from the dielectric properties with the degree of cure from the DSC data. The relationship between the dissipation factor and the degree of cure was tested under various temperature profiles.