Optimizing the Flexural Strength of Epoxy Resin Using Taguchi Statistical Design Method

Epoxy resins are the most important polymeric materials used in the preparation of thermal insulator in double base rocket propellants. In this work, Taguchi statistical method was used for the flexural strength investigation of epoxy resins (after curing). The effects of the type of resin, concentration of diluent (phr), type of curing agent and concentration of curing agent were investigated on the flexural strength and data given of ANOVA showed that the type of curing agent with 46.9 percent has the highest influence on the flexural strength of the epoxy insulator. The data given of ANOVA showed that the best flexural strength of 96.6 ± 13.3 MPa was obtained for the optimum conditions of MANA POX-102 as epoxy resin, H-35 as curing agent with 57 phr. In comparison, practical result of flexural strength with three replicate runs was obtained 92.3 ± 3.8 MPa. Finally, adhesion strength for optimal sample on the surface of a double base propellant by Pull-off test with three replicate runs was resulted as 2.2 ± 0.1 (n=3) MPa.