EXPERIMENTAL DATA AND MODELING OF CURE KINETICS FOR AN OUT-OF-AUTOCLAVE CARBON-FIBER EPOXY PREPREG CURED AT DIFFERENT STAGED CURE CYCLES

摘要

The degree of cure (α) of an out-of-autoclave carbon-fiber epoxy prepreg cured at isothermal cure cycles as well as staged cure cycles (i.e., cure cycles consisting of at least two heat-up and isothermal stages) was calculated and modeled. Cycom 5320-8HS was the carbon fiber epoxy prepreg used for this study. A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) was utilized to obtain the degree of cure. The degree of cure was modeled using the Springer-Loos cure kinetics model. The model parameters were obtained by curve fitting to the experimental α data for a wide range of isothermal curing temperatures. The same model parameters were used to estimate α for staged curing cycles. To improve the model predictions, the parameters were also obtained separately for each staged cure cycle using the least squares iteration method. The accuracy of the model predictions was discussed and different methods for improving the modeling efforts were suggested.