ISSN Online: 2377-424X
ISBN Print: 0-89116-909-1
International Heat Transfer Conference 9
INTERNAL PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION IN DECOMPOSING POLYMER COMPOSITES
Abstrakt
Analytical models have been developed that predict pressure and temperature in decomposing polymer composites. There is a need for experimental results to verify these models. This paper is primarily concerned with the experimental determination of pressures in two polymer composites, Haveg H4IN and Fiberite MXBE-350. Pressures are found to increase rapidly shortly after the onset of the pyrolysis reactions and then decrease rather quickly after the permeability begins to increase. Temperatures are also measured in order to determine the stage of decomposition at which the peak pressures occur. Pressures as high as 10 atm. occur in a "tight" composite such as H4IN but in the more porous MXBE-350, peak pressure is 3 atm. High pressures can cause cracking of the composite. In cases in which cracking does not occur there is good agreement between experimental and analytical results.