Abstract
Epoxy resins usually shrink during the curing and cooling processes. When the shrinkage in constrained by some reason, such as an adhesion with other materials, the constrained shrinkage is converted to residual stress. The magnitude of the residual stress depends on both the elastic modulus and the thermal and curing shrinkage in the glassy region of the cured resins.
The effect on the chemical structure on the residual stress in epoxy networks was discussed. Namely, some epoxy resins which have lower glassy modulus and lower thermal expansion coefficient were introduced.
