The thermal decomposition of polymer matrix composites is a complex process involving hundreds of reactions and species, which are often modeled with simplified one-step schemes. These schemes can be improved by adding intermediate reactions of different nature (competitive, parallel, and consecutive). However, the optimal number and nature of intermediate reactions are rarely discussed. In this paper, several reaction schemes of increasing complexity have been developed to model the decomposition of a carbon/epoxy composite. The kinetic parameters describing each reaction have been extracted from thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) by means of isoconversional methods. The composite mass loss rate and residual mass have been modeled and compared to TGA and tube furnace data. This research shows that adding parallel or consecutive intermediate reactions improves the agreement against TGA data compared to a single-step model, but only competitive reactions can account for the variation of the residual mass observed in the tube furnace when the heating rate is varied.

中文翻译：

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用现象学方法模拟碳纤维环氧树脂基复合材料的热分解和残余质量：反应方案的影响

聚合物基复合材料的热分解是一个复杂的过程，涉及数百个反应和物种，通常使用简化的一步方案进行建模。这些方案可以通过添加不同性质（竞争、平行和连续）的中间反应来改进。然而，很少讨论中间反应的最佳数量和性质。在本文中，已经开发了几种复杂性越来越高的反应方案来模拟碳/环氧树脂复合材料的分解。描述每个反应的动力学参数是通过等转化方法从热重分析 (TGA) 中提取的。已对复合质量损失率和残余质量进行建模，并与 TGA 和管式炉数据进行比较。