Manufacturing and Performance Evaluation of Polyurethane Composites Using One-part and Two-part Resin Systems

Polyurethane (PU)-based composites show superior performance compared to polyester and vinylester composites. The demand for PU composites is increasing in high technology as well as conventional applications such as infrastructure and automobile. In this study, glass fiber reinforced composite laminates using one-part and two-part PU resin are manufactured using vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) process. A new generation two-part thermoset PU resin system is investigated and compared with commercial one-part PU resin systems. The mechanical performance of glass fiber reinforced composites manufactured using two different PU resin systems is evaluated. Tensile and flexure tests are conducted on both neat resin and glass/PU composites. Low-velocity impact tests are performed on both types of glass fiber reinforced PU composite specimens. Mechanical properties including strength and modulus were measured and analyzed for the two resin systems. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is used to study the cure behavior of both resin systems. A Brookfield LVDV-Il programmable rotational type viscometer is employed to study the viscosity profiles of the resin systems. The influence of resin properties on the overall performance of glass fiber reinforced composites is discussed.