The damage effects of 1. 4 MeV electron irradiation on several epoxy resins cured by 4,4忆鄄diaminodi鄄
phenyl methane were investigated. The results show that the epoxy resins are subjected to discoloration,weight loss,
cracking and degradation of mechanical properties when exposed to high鄄energy electron irradiation. The degradation
varies with absorbed dose and the chemical structure of epoxy resins. Evaluated from the extent of cracking and com鄄
pressive strength reduction,all the epoxy systems studied in this work,including diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A
(DGEBA), N,N,N忆,N忆-tetraglycidyl-4,4忆鄄diaminodiphenyl methane (TGDDM),triglycidylether of para鄄aminophe鄄
nol (TGPAP),the DGEBA/ TGDDM and DGEBA/ TGPAP blends are tolerant to the absorbed dose of 106 Gy. Only the
DGEBA/ TGPAP blends, which have a moderate crosslinking density,can withstand the absorbed dose of 107 Gy. The
order of radiation resistance of the epoxy resins is revealed to be DGEBA/ TGPAP > DGEBA/ TGDDM >TGPAP抑TG鄄
DDM>DGEBA. An increase in compressive modulus induced by irradiation implies a crosslinking mechanism domi鄄
nates the degradation of epoxy resins,which is confirmed by the DMA and DSC measurements