Polymerization monitoring using ultrasound (original) (raw)

The polymerization of a resin is the main interest during the fabrication of a composite material. In the case of a Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) process, the monitoring of resin polymerization can inform about the evolution of the process parameters. In this work, ultrasonic velocity and attenuation in the resin are monitored using a broadband ultrasonic transducer. Using this method, the time dependence of the characterized parameters allows determining the polymerization characteristics such as the beginning, the end or the inflexion point of the studied parameter. Through these measurements, the evolution of polymerization could be related to the process and environmental conditions (such as temperature) in order to consider improvements to the RTM technique.