ABSTRACT
Because of the viscous nature of thermoset resins, their mechanical properties are strongly dependent on strain rate and temperature (Coates and Ward 1978; George et al. 1999; Dasari and Misra 2003; Mae 2008; Plaseied and Fatemi 2008a, b). According to time–temperature physical equivalence (Van Krevelen and Nijenhuis 2009a, b), lower temperature should be comparable to higher strain rate, whereas higher temperature is equivalent to lower strain rate. Thus increasing strain rate or decreasing temperature would have similar effect on the mechanical properties of thermosets. In this review, strain rate and temperature effects on the yield strength (σY), tensile strength (σT), and Young’s modulus (E) of three types of thermosets are discussed: (a) epoxy, (b) vinyl ester, and (c) unsaturated polyester and some composites based on these materials.
