Evaluation of polymerization shrinkage and hydroscopic expansion of fiber-reinforced biocomposites using optical fiber Bragg grating sensors Anttila EJ et al. - Unfilled polymer resin had the highest polymerization shrinkage of 0.84%. Unidirectional FRC had a relatively high shrinkage in the transverse direction with respect to the reinforcing fibers (0.41%) whereas the shrinkage along the reinforcing fibers was small (0.02%). Bidirectional FRC showed a low shrinkage value (0.03%). For most tested materials the hydroscopic expansion seemed to compensate for the polymerization shrinkage. [more...]
