A model for resin viscosity during cure in the resin transfer moulding process

Abstract A cure model has been developed for the viscosity of two-part epoxy/amine resins, focussing on low extents of cure—the most important region for the mould-filling stage in resin transfer moulding. A key advantage of the model is that it is not explicitly dependent on the extent of cure; therefore, the model can be used to predict the viscosity during cure without the need for determining the resin cure kinetics. The model parameters are obtained from isothermal viscosity–time measurements at constant shear rate. Examples are shown and data are given for five different resins in the temperature range 20–70 °C. The model is applied to simulate non-isothermal cure and compared against experimental data.