Ultrasonic cure monitoring of thermosetting materials: Generic data representation using the time-temperature-transformation diagram.

The use of the time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagram as a form of generic data representation has been investigated in the context of experiments in which ultrasonic wave absorption was used to monitor the cure of a thermoset polymer. It is shown that an ultrasonic version of the TTT diagram provides an effective means to monitor and track cure and to relate observations to evolving macromolecular structure. A series of multistage cure experiments show how complicated cure trajectories can be plotted on the TTT diagram and demonstrate the possibilities of this approach for property prediction and process optimisation in industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]