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Nicholas Dembsey Presents Best Overall Technical Paper at COMPOSITES & POLYCON 2007; Others Awarded in Eight Categories

October 18, 2007 (Tampa, Fla.) - Fire Characteristics of Polyester FRP Composites with Different Glass Contents won Best Overall Technical Paper, awarded by the Technical Papers Committee of the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA) today at COMPOSITES & POLYCON 2007 in Tampa, Fla.

Nicholas Dembsey, Associate Professor; Melissa Avila, Graduate Student; and Esther Kim, Graduate Student; all of WPI - Fire Protection Engineering, co-authored the paper with Chris Lautenberger, Doctoral Candidate, UC Berkeley, Mechanical Engineering; and Charles Dore, President, Abate Fire Technologies.

This paper provides complete data sets for pyrolysis modeling for polyester FRP composites. In our industry’s quest to “design for fire”, a more thorough understanding of how typical FRPs decompose under fire conditions is needed.  This paper explores this and begins developing a “virtual composite.”

According to ACMA’s Education and Technical Manager Larry Cox, who served on the committee, “All papers were outstanding in terms of content and style; therefore, the committee struggled to choose one top paper. We ultimately agreed that this paper stood out above the rest.”

41 final papers were reviewed by the committee this year, which were narrowed to the best of eight categories. Winners in each category were presented plaques at the time of their paper presentations. The best overall paper also won in the Fire Resistant Technology category.

In the Materials category, Impact Properties of Polyester Resins by Stephen Brooks of Reichhold took top honors. This paper investigates impact properties of several different resin chemistries and whether and to what extent the “static” tensile elongation value of a resin relates to a composite’s ability to absorb energy when subject to an impact load.

The award for the Worldwide State of the Art: FRP in Infrastructure (IIFC) category was given to FRP Composites for Retrofitting of Existing Civil Structures in Europe: State-of-the-Art Review by Masoud Motavalli, Professor, and Christoph Czaderski, Civil Engineer, ETH Zurich, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories of Materials Testing and Research. The paper presents the state-of-the-art of FRP composites for strengthening of existing civil structures in Europe. A few applications for FRP strengthening of Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures as well as historical masonry buildings are presented.

In the Manufacturing Technology category, Using Peroxides to Optimize Process Control for Styrene Emissions by Dennis Fink, CCT-I, CCT-CP, of Norac, Inc., was named best paper. This paper expores the possibilities for reducing the amount of stryene emittted in the laminating process by making a thicker laminate, thereby reducing the overall surface area of the process. The proper choice of initiators can give the required working time while reducing the peak exotherm, making this possible.

The award for the Testing & Evaluation category was given to Emission Factors Derived by Mass Balance for the Production of Sheet Molding Compound, by Christine Piper, Analytical Chemist, Molded Fiber Glass Research Company. The purpose of this research was to determine if the mass balance model could be used to determine the styrene emission factor for a SMC machine. The results from the laboratory mass balance model were compared to the results obtained by method 204D conducted at a processing facility. 

In the Materials: Open Molding category, the paper Reactive Copromoter for Unsaturated Polyester Resins by Jeffery Powell, Advanced Technical Representative, and Angela Honeycutt, CCT, Technologist, both of Eastman Chemical Company, won the award.  This paper explores the use of a reactive copromoter to provide increased resin cure reactivity, crosslinking the copromoter into the polymer matrix, and providing resin formulators with a non-HAPS styrene replacement.

The award for the Pultrusion category was given to The Impact of Release Agent on Pultruded FRP, by Clint Smith, Manager of Engineering and Quality, Strongwell; and Stacey Brooks, Technical Sales Manager, Technick Products. This paper reviews the mechanical property performance of two different release agents for pultruded FRP in a statistically design of experiments format.

In the Construction & Infrastructure category, the paper Hybrid Pultruded Plank with a Concrete Compression Flange for Pedestrian Bridges, by Bryan Bindrich and Larry Bank of University of Wisconsin-Madison, was chosen as best paper. This study was conducted to determine the feasibility of using a commercially produced 2 inch deep FRP plank with a 0.75 – 1.0 inch cast-in-place concrete or cement board compression flange as replacement for conventional timber 3” x 12” decking bridge deck for pedestrian or light-weight vehicle bridges.