Abstract: Application of vacuum infusion molding technology for large-scalecarbon fiber composite material structure is an important developing direction of large-scale wind turbine blade manufacturing technology. Because the carbon fiber preform permeability is much lower than that of the glass fiber preform, epoxy resin with a special performance is a key for infusing large scale carbon fiber preform. This paper systematically studies pot life, curing behavior and mechanical properties of three kinds of typical epoxy resin system, and compared them with those of the common epoxy resin system for glass fiber. The analysis results show that, three kinds of special resins have pot life of varying lengths, but greater than the ordinary resin; building up properties of epoxy anhydride system is slow in the curing process, which is a risk in large-scale structure application; preform preheating contributes to the carbon fiber composite material which can obtain high fiber volume content and better mechanical properties.

Key words: carbon fiber, epoxy resin, wind turbine blade, vacuum infusion