Tutorial 6

Rheology and Thermoset Material

1. State 2 types of deformation/flow which are of importance in polymer

characterisation/processing?

2. Sketch the shear viscosity vs. shear rate curves for the following:
a. A Newtonian liquid
b. A Polymer Melt

3. Sketch the universal relationship between the shear viscosity () and
weight average molecular weight (Mw) for linear polymers? Briefly explain
the different regime that exists on the curve.

4. On the same axis sketch the viscosity curves (graph of log 10 against
log10ddt) for the following:
a. HDPE with Mw/ Mn=15, Mw=200,000 g/mol.
b. HDPE with Mw/ Mn=4, Mw=100,000 g/mol.

5. An epoxy resin is produced from polymerisation reaction between

difunctional epoxy monomer (diepoxide groups) with diamine as a
crosslinker.
Calculate the critical gel conversion, pc for the above epoxy resin system
reacted at stoichiometric ratio r = 1. (r = mol epoxide/mol H-amine)

6. The polymerisation reactions of difunctional epoxy-diamine system were

conducted at various reaction temperatures. The gel point, tgel are shown
below.

Calculate the activation energy of the above system