Ultrasonic monitoring for adhesive materials

Abstract

Resins play an extremely crucial role in many applications from dental composites, pipe insulator and adhesive to shellac. Among the wide categories of resins, thermosetting resins such as epoxies are well-known for its outstanding mechanical properties, high resistivity to environmental degradation and high adhesive strength. The epoxy employed in this experiment is Loctite EA 9396, which is a two-part adhesive of tetraglycidyl diaminodiphenylmethane and epichlorohydrin-4,4’-isopropylidene diphenol resin. A non-destructive testing technique, Ultrasound would also be employed. The objective of this project is to characterize the material properties of Loctite EA 9396 and investigate the possibility to use ultrasonic bulk waves for the monitoring of modulus of adhesive materials. The transmission of ultrasonic waves to determine the cure state of epoxy will be discussed in this report, since longitudinal and shear velocity are components of Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio. The fundamentals of ultrasound and graphs of amplitude with respect to time are also examined. In this report, the recent experiments conducted on ultrasonic cure monitoring will be analyzed to show the reliability of ultrasonic wave propagation for characterization of the cure state of epoxy. It would also focus on the principles of ultrasound testing on epoxy.