Rotational Molding of Polyamide-12 Nanocomposites: Modeling of the Viscoelastic Behavior

Abstract

Nowadays, polyamide 12 (PA-12) is considered as an interesting polymer in the rotomolding process to manufacture different pieces like the liner part in the storage hydrogen tank (type IV). In this study, the pure polyamide-12 and PA12 pieces, incorporated with 0.5%, 1% and 3% wt Nano Carbon Black (NCB), were manufactured by the rotomolding process. Different rotomolding parameters such as heating temperature, time of heating, and cooling rate have been optimized to obtain the ideal piece. The effect of volume fraction of NCB in terms of physicochemical and mechanical properties has been studied. Afterward, the optimal volume fraction of NCB is revealed using different characterization methods. The tensile results specified the addition of NCBs until 0.5% improved the tensile behavior. The addition of NCBs more than 0.5% decreases the mechanical properties in terms of failure stress and strain, while it has no significant effect on the elastic modulus of PA-12. The bi-parabolic the Perez model has been used to study the viscoelastic behavior of PA-12 using the Cole-Cole method. The constants of the Perez model indicate a good correlation between viscoelastic experimental results and the model used.