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Volume fraction determination of Kevlar 49/epoxy composites
Author(s) -
Allred Ronald E.,
Hall Nancy H.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.760191305
Subject(s) - kevlar , epoxy , materials science , composite material , filament winding , composite number , volume fraction , protein filament , swelling , void (composites) , dissolution , epoxide , porosity , matrix (chemical analysis) , chemical engineering , chemistry , biochemistry , engineering , catalysis
Abstract A knowledge of filament, matrix, and void content is generally required in order to characterize and study composite materials. It is difficult to obtain such data for Kevlar 49/epoxy composites due to chemical attack of the Kevlar filaments when techniques developed for other composite systems are used. This paper presents a chemical dissolution technique for Kevlar 49/epoxy composites by which less than one percent loss of the filament weight occurs. The procedure involves swelling the epoxide matrix in hot dimethylsulfoxide and then rapidly dissolving the degraded epoxide in a nitric aciddimethylsulfoxide solution. This technique allows the determination of filament, matrix, and void volume fractions of Kevlar 49/epoxy composites with a single procedure and has been successfully applied to fabric and filament‐wound composites and to a variety of epoxides. Results obtained with this dissolution technique show excellent agreement with those from optical and weight‐difference methods.