V. J. Flanigan

Cure Characterization of Pultruded Soy-Based Composites

Polymer matrix composites using renewable resources are currently of great interest. A novel soy-based resin system for pultrusion was synthesized at University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR). Due to relatively low reactivity of soy-based resin and short curing time of pultrusion, it is important to set up the process parameters properly in order to obtain a high quality pultruded product. In the present work, a combination of experimental and numerical methods is used to investigate the effect of pultrusion process variables on the cure of composites. A mathematical model has been developed and implemented in the commercial ABAQUS finite element package to predict the temperature and degree of cure of soy-based composites. The kinetic parameters of the soy-based epoxy resins are obtained from a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). Glass fiber-reinforced composite samples are manufactured using a pultrusion machine. For experimental verification, an online monitoring system is used to measure the temperature profiles inside the die. The degrees of cure of pultruded soy-based composites are measured by DSC. The experimental findings are in good agreement with the finite element prediction. The results indicate that the novel soy-based epoxy resin system is suitable for application in the pultrusion process.

U.S./India Co-operative Biomass Conversion Program

As part of an overall effort to reduce the dependence on imported oil, the Government of India and the U.S. Agency for International Development have recently initiated a collaborative program to develop and implement newer coal and biomass energy conversion technologies in India. The dispersed nature of biomass resources generally restricts their application to small to medium-scale energy conversion technologies. However, the mining, beneficiation, and transportation of coal is done economically to satisfy the demand of large centralized energy conversion technologies. Thus, the development and implementation of biomass conversion technologies are quite complementary to the development of large-scale coal conversion technologies. The successful development, testing, and wide-scale commercialization of biomass conversion technologies in India, in addition to facilitating the reduction in imported oil demand, will also indirectly help conserve the indigenous coal resources, thus enhancing the local coal supply for large, centralized, coal-based plants.