Abstract

Abstract

Fiber reinforced plastics are the current protagonist in the automotive industry, their mechanical properties and their lightweight make them unique in reducing the impact of the weight on fuel consumption. The curing of thermosetting resins as the polymer matrix for an FRP is one of the main issues facing this sector.

Through applications examples, it is demonstrated how the behavior of curing of thermosetting resins can be studied by the techniques of dielectric analysis (DEA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). In-situ cure monitoring is possible by DEA.

Abstract

Nowadays asphalts modified with polymers (PMA) are used in a wide range of applications, for example, as waterproofing, pavements and membranes, and are being object of a great amount of publications and patents. The processes of modification of asphalt with polymers are widely used to achieve the use of asphalts for some applications where the use of non-modified asphalt is not suitable due to their high thermal susceptibility, their tendency to oxidize or their high content of saturated and aromatic compounds. In this work, milled rubber has been used as an asphalt modifier for the manufacture of waterproofing covers. The use of milled rubber makes it possible to find a viable outlet for the large quantities of discarded tires that accumulate in the tanks and achieve an ecological benefit. Therefore, the rheological study of new compositions with different percentages of polymer addition have been carried out. As main results, it is observed that the asphalt without polymer (MA) at 30º C behaves practically like a Newtonian liquid, while the PMA samples behave as non-Newtonian fluids. On the other hand, the addition of rubber leads to an increase in two orders of magnitude of the elastic and viscous modulus, as does the complex viscosity. The yield stress is greater in the PMA samples, and both the maximum force and the adhesion work increase. The addition of elastomer increases the viscosity of the product, but further increases its elastic component. In MA, the viscous component is greater than the elastic component whereas in the PMAs this behavior is reversed.