Characterization of Thermo-Viscoelastic Property of Thermo-Plastic Resin Reinforced by Carbon Nanofiber
Masahiro Arai, Hiroki Tanaka, Kazutoshi Matsushita and Koh-ichi Sugimoto
Abstract:In the present paper, press molding for thermo-plastic resin toughened by carbon nanofiber were discussed. Polycarbonate(PC) and vapor grown carbon nanofiber (VGCF) are used for the resin matrix and the reinforcement. In order to investigate and simulate the molding process of the PC/VGCF composite by finite element method, the constitutive equation, namely thermo-viscoelastic property of the composites are required. The relaxation modulus (Master curve) and shift factor to characterize it's thermo-viscoelastic behavior were estimated by unidirectional compression creep test in this paper. The relaxation modulus for the composite were approximated by the discretized series form using generalized Maxwell model. The displacement history of the creep test were calculated by finite element method. The numerical and experimental results are compared and discussed in detail to confirm the validity of the estimated relaxation modulus obtained the present procedure. Key Words:Thermo-viscoelasticity, Creep test, Constitutive equation, Press molding, Laplace transform, Finite element method