The effects of cure conditions on the relaxation behavior of thermosetting adhesives

Erol Sancaktar, The University of Akron

Abstract

The ability to dissipate mechanical energy by plastic (viscous) deformation is an important strength consideration for structural adhesives. The bulk solid viscosity parameter, μ, used in spring-dashpot mechanical-model characterization of polymeric materials, provides a convenient measure of this capability. The viscosity parameter, in turn, can be related to the relaxation time for the material with the use of the elastic modulus.This paper presents a study of the effects of cure temperature and time on the stress relaxation behavior of Metlbond 1113 modified-epoxy adhesive with carrier cloth. Short term (t=1/2 minute) relaxation data are successfully fitted with the modified Bingham mechanical model to obtain relaxation time and bulk solid viscosity parameter values corresponding to different cure conditions. Experimental results indicate that both the relaxation time and the bulk viscosity values behave in a bell-shaped increasing-decreasing manner with respect to the cure temperature for all cure time values. This behavior is similar to that of adhesive ultimate strength and elastic modulus as observed by us earlier.