Modelling of chemical shrinkage evolution with curing degree of a filled epoxy adhesive

An epoxy adhesive system, commonly used in wind turbine blade manufacturing, is experimentally investigated with respect to its chemical shrinkage behavior to show the shrinkage evolution within rotor blade production related process conditions. Therefore, a new test configuration is set up to record the resulting chemical shrinkage of the adhesive at cross-linking temperatures ranging from 20 C to 90 C. The respective conversion evolution is simulated under several temperature conditions through a curing kinetics model. This is generated with state of the art formulations, implementing test results from a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). Moreover, the transformation of the curing degree to the corresponding glass transition temperature (Tg ) is performed through an experimentally based Di-Benedetto curve-fitting. By the combination of curing kinetics and chemical shrinkage test data, a model for the temperature and conversion dependant chemical shrinkage evolution during cure is developed. This is applied to a realistic curing cycle for adhesive materials in rotor blade production.