Development and validation of a novel rheological test device and measurement system for determining the influence of humidity on viscosity

Although a strong impact of humidity on polymers and the formation of their molecular network is known, the complex interactions between humidity, temperature, diffusion, reaction kinetics, rheological behaviour and mechanical properties are not fully understood yet. Most current approaches solely analyse the relationships between environmental conditions in a solidified or crosslinked state and the mechanical properties. In contrast, this work focusses on measuring changes in rheological properties depending on relative humidity in the liquid state. A custom designed novel measuring geometry is introduced and validated. It enables for the first time to rheometrically investigate the influence of relative humidity on reactive systems during their cross-linking process. Our results significantly depict the influence of humidity on the cross-linking process and the gel time. The potential of the introduced measuring geometry for improving reactive systems, adapting these precisely to environmental boundary conditions or assuring product performance is hereby demonstrated. This is especially important for industrial manufacturing processes running at different production sites around the world in different climatic zones or repair processes being performed outdoor, e.g. for wind energy plants.