Moisture absorption modeling using design of experiments

The effect of temperature and humidity on equilibrium moisture content of laminates was studied by response surface design. Two glass fabric-reinforced laminated composite materials with different epoxy matrix resins, laminates A and B, were studied. Laminates A and B used are cyanate ester and polyphenylene oxide modified epoxy based laminate, respectively. The results show that the response surface profiles of moisture absorption for the two laminate materials are similar though their amounts of moisture absorption are different. The temperature-humidity interaction effect and the quadratic effect of temperature are significant for laminate A. However, only the linear effects of temperature and humidity are significant for laminate B. Predictive models relating the important factors to the equilibrium moisture content were proposed in the article. The models developed can be used to predict and assess the reliability of the laminates for moisture related failures