Rheological studies of functional polyurethane composite: Part 1. Rheology of polyurethane composite, its compounds with and without solid additives (aluminum flakes)

The rheological dynamic characteristics of the functional Polyurethane composite as well as its compounds (triethanolamine (TEOA) and toluene-2,4-diisocyanate (TDI)) with and without solid additives (aluminum flakes) were experimentally measured using a computer-controlled mechanical spectrometer (rheometer) ARES-G2. Rheological studies showed that both components behave as viscous Newtonian fluids. TEOA exhibits a strong temperature-thickening behavior. TEOA with aluminum flake additives behaves as a viscous Newtonian fluid. The effective viscosity of the two-phase mixture increases with the concentration of the aluminum additive and decreases with the temperature rise. The rheometric tests showed that the effective viscosity of the TDI/Al mixture increases with the aluminum content. The mixture exhibits thermal-thickening and shear-thinning behaviors with the yield stress. The system can be described with the Bingham plastic model. It is determined that TEOA/TDI composite exhibits a strong time-thickening and shear-thinning behaviors. The rheological behavior of this composite can be described with the power-law generalized non-Newtonian fluid model. The effective viscosity of TEOA/TDI/Al composite increases with both the testing time (exponentially) and the aluminum content (polynomial) in the mixture. However, these shear-thinning composites obey the power-law generalized non-Newtonian fluid model, and their flow curves can be described by the logarithmic law