A thermal model for cure of thermoset composites

• Published in: Journal of materials processing technology Vol. 63; no. 1-3; pp. 442 - 449
• Main Authors: Kinsey, S P, Haji-Sheikh, A, Lou, D Y S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 12.11.1996
• ISSN: 0924-0136

In this study the temperature and degree of cure of an advanced composite material during autoclave cure are investigated numerically. A new thermal model is presented which can compute these quantities for a part of complex geometry and for three different heat transfer boundary conditions. The Fourier heat transfer equation and a model of the degree of cure based upon the temperature history of the part are solved using a finite difference technique. An elliptical partial differential equation system is used to transform the geometrical region into a regular, uniformly spaced computational grid. In using this model, one can analyze the effects of cure cycle ramps, strategies, hold times, and more realistic heat transfer processes to obtain an optimum cure cycle. Also studied are adaptive cure cycles where the heating and cooling ramps are "adaptively" controlled by the temperature differences across the composite part, or between the part and the autoclave. A number of examples are calculated and results are presented.