A piecewise kinetic model consistent with curing cycle of epoxy/amine composite

Curing kinetic model is a crucial basis for the processing analysis and simulation of resin matrix composites. The existing dynamic and isothermal models have systematic errors for an actual curing cycle with heating and holding stages. In this study, a piecewise model was proposed to be consistent with curing cycles. First, the dynamic and isothermal models of an epoxy/amine system were developed by analyzing differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) data. Then they were applied to heating and holding stages, respectively, to establish the piecewise model, which was verified by carrying out cyclic DSC tests and comparing the accuracies of models. The prediction error of the proposed model could be lowered by over threefold relative to the existing models. Moreover, the proposed model had a favorable universality compared to the cyclic DSC test. These advantages could be conducive to the numerical simulation and parameter optimization of curing process.