Abstract
One of the major disadvantages of epoxy resins when they are used to impregnate a fabric or when they are used to obtain laminates is their rigidity that leads in loading conditions to the matrix fracture followed by breaking of fabric due to a shearing mechanism in which the two free parts of the matrix fracture acts as a scissor. During the design of a composite material or structure such behavior of the matrix has to be taken into account and the problem could be solved if the rigidity of the matrix is reduced. The present study is about changing the value of this parameter by using an organic polymer solvent and a thermoplastic polymer to modify the basic properties of an epoxy resin. At this time an analysis of thermal properties of polymer blends is done to determine the effect of solvent and thermoplastic polymer presence inside the epoxy matrix.
Keywords: epoxy resin; polyvinylpyrrolidone; 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone; specific heat; thermal expansion coefficient