Molecular investigation on the compatibility of epoxy resin with liquid oxygen

Conventional fiber reinforced plastics(FRPs) have compatibility issues with solid oxygen while used as a fuel tank, which might cause combustion and explosion. To study the compatibility of different epoxy resins with liquid oxygen, molecular dynamics was used to simulate the phase changes of cross-linked epoxy resins under the impact of solid oxygen. Three curing resin systems,which are bisphenol A epoxy resin(DGEBA), bisphenol F epoxy resin(DGEBF), and tetrahydrophthalate diglycidyl ester(epoxy resin 711), are modeled to investigate the rational material system for the application of fuel tanks in launching vehicles. The simulation results show that the order of solid oxygen compatibility of these epoxy resins is DGEBA DGEBF epoxy resin 711 at the same density of crosslinking. The selection of curing agent also has an impact on the compatibility, with the same epoxy, diaminodiphenyl methane(DDM) has more advanced performance comparing to diaminodiphenyl sulfone(DDS).