Thermo‐chemical response of vinyl‐ester resin

This paper presents the thermo‐chemical characterization of Dow Derakane 411‐C50 commercial vinyl‐ester resin at low temperatures (20°C to 40°C). Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Torsional Braid Analysis (TBA) are the experimental techniques used to characterize the material behavior. The cure kinetics are studied using DSC and are modeled using a modified autocatalytic equation with a maximum degree‐of‐cure term. Also, the effect of inhibitors in the resin system is accounted for by an inhibitor depletion model. The glass transition temperature (T g ) is also characterized using TBA and related to the degree of cure. It was found that the T g and the degree of cure do not exhibit a linear relationship for this resin system. The findings presented in this work provide information for accurate cure modeling and process simulation of vinyl‐ester materials.