• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.93-104
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• 2017

In the present work, the effect of hygrothermal aging on the glass fibre and epoxy matrix interface has been investigated by destructive and non-destructive techniques. The glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite laminates were prepared using Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion Molding (VARIM) technique and the specimens were immersed in simulated seawater, followed by quantitative measurement. Besides this, the tensile tests of GFRP specimens revealed a general decrease in the properties with increasing aging time. Also, exposed specimens were characterized by a non-destructive ultrasonic guided Lamb wave propagation technique. The experimental results demonstrate a correlation between the drop in ultrasonic voltage amplitude and fall in tensile strength with increasing time of immersion. Hence, the comparison of the transmitted guided wave signal of healthy vis-a-vis specimens subjected to different extents of hygrothermal aging facilitated performance evaluation of GFRP composites.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.26-41
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• 2021

Titanium hydride potassium perchlorate (THPP) has played an important role as initiators of the propulsion system. However, the 'aging' may cause performance degradation and even give rise to a failure in the total system. In this study, various hygrothermal aging conditions were considered and the aging effects on thermodynamic and ignition characteristics of THPP are provided via thermal analysis and ignition measurements. Also, physical-chemical changes were identified by morphological analysis. In conclusion, thermal aging led to E_α decrease-high reactivity due to oxidizer decomposition whereas hygrothermal aging gave rise to an opposite tendency by fuel oxidation.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.177-180
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• 2006

The anticorrosive performance of epoxy coating was examined by using the hygrothermal cyclic test and the degradation mechanism of the coating was investigated by using the AC impedance method. The relationship between the results obtained from different tests was studied. It was revealed that the hygrothermal cyclic test can be used as an effective acceleration test for the degradation of organic coating. It was also found in hygrothermal cyclic test that the epoxy coatings have the resistance to stresses at some extent. The degradation of organic coating seems to be caused by the decrease of resistance of coating and the increase of both capacitance and free volume in the organic coating.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.892-901
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• 2018

Because of excellent electrical properties, epoxy resin is widely used in packaging and casting power equipment. Moisture and temperature in the environment are inclined to seriously affect the insulation tolerance of epoxy resin. This work focuses on the aging characteristics of epoxy resin in hygrothermal environment. Scanning electron microscopy images show that there are micro-crack, micro-slit and holes inside aged samples. The moisture absorption process undergoes three equilibrium stages and it does not follow the Fick's second law. Observing the change of hydrogen bonds in the infrared spectra of the dried samples, it is found that chemically moisture absorption immerges when the physical moisture absorption entered the third equilibrium stage. By Debye equation to fit the imaginary part of the dielectric constant, it is concluded that the uniformity of water molecule has a great influence on the electrical conductivity loss. Furthermore, the polarization loss can be more easily affected by water molecules than small free molecules. After the aged samples being dried, their real and imaginary part of the dielectric constant descend, but their original electrical properties cannot completely restored. After chemical moisture absorption appears inside the material, the residual space charges increase significantly and the charge dissipation rate slow down obviously.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.79-92
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• 2019

Titanium hydride potassium perchlorate (THPP) is one of the commonly utilized pyrotechnic materials in aerospace industries. The current study elucidates the effects of hygrothermal aging on the combustion of THPP experimentally. First, applying the Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and isocoversional method, both the delay of reaction start and decrease in maximum reaction rate were observed. The kinetics parameters tended to fluctuate depending the thermal reaction or intermediate product formation of THPP. Also, the oxidants decomposition and fuel oxidation phenomenon were discovered by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The experimental heat from DSC data were verified as reasonable by comparing with the theoretical heat obtained utilizing both THPP formulation from XPS and NASA Chemical Equilibrium with Applications (CEA). Both data had identical variation trend, which expecially had the highest heat value at 10 weeks aged sample.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.479-482
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• 1999

Cured epoxy resins are extensively used for the electrical insulation in high-voltage equipments. The bisphenol A-based epoxy resins lured with azine show, especially, good thermal properties and mechanical resistances. For the technical and economic reasons, varing amount of inorganic fillers are added to endow the required special properties. In the large generators and motors of power plants, epoxy insulation is disclosed to the harsh conditions like the superheated steam and abrupt temperature variation. Hygrothermal aging at elevated temperatures tends to induce degradation in epoxy resins. To predict the effect of this degradation in DGEBA/MDA/SN/zeolite system, we proceeded the forced moisture absorption experiment using the autoclave. The thermal properties of the untreated and treated specimens were analyzed by DSC and TGA under the nitrogen flowing condition. The moisture absorption results showed a weight increase during hygrothermal aging at 1207. At the initial aging period, the system leaded to more or less postcuring but more prolonged environmental aging leaded the discoloration of specimen and lowering the T$_{g}$./.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.727-734
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• 2004

An uncoupled computational model for analyzing the hygrothermal dynamic response of composite laminates has been developed. The constitutive equations, expressed in an integral form, and involving relaxation moduli are adopted, to describe the non-aging hygrothermorheologically simple materials. A Prony series represents the relaxation moduli is exploited in order to derive a recursive relationship, and thereby eliminate the storage problem that arises when dealing with material possessing memory. The problem is formulated in a descritized variational form. Mindlin and higher order finite elements are employed for spatial descretization, while the Newmark average acceleration scheme is exploited for temporal descritization. The adopted recursive formula uses only the details of the previous event to compute the details of the current one. Numerical results of the displacement fields of both thin and thick viscoelastic laminates problems are discussed to show up the effectiveness of Mindlin and higher-order shear theories.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.3 s.22
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• pp.124-130
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• 2005

In this paper, the effects of matrix hygrothermal aging and residual stress changes on $Avimid^{(R)}$ K3B/IM7 laminates in $80^{\circ}C$ water were studied. The factors causing the $80^{\circ}C$ water to degradation of the laminates could be the degradation of the matrix toughness, the change in residual stresses. After 500 hours fully saturated aging of the neat resin, the weight gain was 1.55% increase with the diffusion coefficient $7{\times}10^{-6}m^2/s$ and the fracture toughness was decreased about 41%. After 100 hours fully saturated aging of the $[+45/0/-45/90]_s$ K3B/IM7 laminates in $80^{\circ}C$ water, the weight gain was 0.41% increase with the diffusion coefficient $1{\times}10^{-6}m^2/s$ and the loss of the microcracking fracture toughness was 43.8% of the original toughness. To see whether the residual stress influenced the fracture toughness, two ply $[90^{\circ}/0^{\circ}]$ laminates were put in $80^{\circ}C$ water from 2 hours to 8 hours. The changes in residual stress in 8 hours are less than 3MPa. Because the 3MPa change is not sufficient to degrade the laminates, the main factor to degrade the microcracking fracture toughness was the degradation of the matrix fracture toughness.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.49 no.9
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• pp.759-769
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• 2021

For aerospace propulsion systems, Titanium Hydride Potassium Perchlorate (THPP) is a material commonly used as a pyrotechnic initiator that generates gas when energy is supplied or as a supplement charge for NASA standard initiator (NSI). However, when the energetic materials are stored for a long time, it faces the problem of 'aging'. In this study, changes in thermodynamic properties of THPP aged under various humidity environments were identified through thermal analysis and surface analysis. First, a considerable amount of cracks on the surface of the oxidant was found in the aged THPPs. Particularly, when the humidity level increased, the number and length of the cracks rapidly increased. Also, the deterioration of Viton was found only in the thermally aged sample whereas the oxidation of the fuel was more pronounced in the hygrothermally aged samples. The extracted kinetic parameters of THPP on the reaction progress vary greatly by the humidity level, indicating that moisture significantly changes the performance and combustion reaction of THPP, which may eventually result in a reduced lifespan.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.14-27
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• 2020

Differential scanning calorimetry and numerical analysis were performed to estimate the performance degradation and ignition characteristics of the pyrotechnic device due to aging. The reaction kinetics extracted from the calorimetry are implemented into the numerical simulation of the igniter and the pyrotechnic delay, subjected to natural, thermal, and hygrothermal aging conditions. Also, combustion experiments are conducted to confirm that aging due to moisture is a major cause of performance failure of the pyrotechnic device as shown from the present numerical simulations.