Elastomeric sizings for glass fibers and their role in fiber wetting and adhesion in resin transfer molded composites

Abstract

Mold fill velocities of 0.067 cm³/s and 2.66 cm³/s were used to impregnate glass fiber preforms with different architectures and sizing types in two force-controlled resin transfer molding (RTM) fixtures. The fabrication of disk-shaped parts at high molding speed and high post-cure fill pressure was proven successful in reducing the amount of flow-induced defects for reinforcements with a random nonlayered structure. Investigations on the effect of fiber/matrix interface modification with controlled-thickness elastomeric films obtained by the admicellar polymerization technique were carried out to assess the structural integrity levels attained with these less expensive polymeric sizings. In particular, parts reinforced with fibers coated with a thin film of styrene-isoprene copolymer performed significantly better than the uncoated control samples in the tensile and flexural tests. For the same sizing type, the interlaminar shear strength was more than 30% higher than the desized composite and compared statistically to the adhesion level exhibited by commercially sized reinforcements. Greater data scatter and poorer adhesion performance was observed for those composites containing fibers with a thin polystyrene coat. We infer that beneficial effects of a nanometer-thick elastomer interlayer are more evident when extensive cooperative segmental motions take place, that is, when the surface glass transition temperature of the sizing is far below the room temperature. These results have implications for composite manufacture applications involving tailored interfaces with flexible sizings.

Keywords:

• Flexible sizing
• resin transfer molding
• glass fiber
• epoxy
• high-speed molding
• admicellar polymerization
• polystyrene
• styrene-isoprene.