Computational Modeling of Curing Induced Damage Due to Compaction on Woven Fabric Composite

摘要

Fiber-reinforced composite materials are widely used in the aerospace andrnautomobile industries. Woven fiber composites have shown promising capabilitiesrnfor light-weight and high strength applications. The geometry of the yarns presentrnwithin these composites is extremely complex, and a thorough understanding of therninfluence of the manufacturing process on the final composite is very important.rnVacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) process is used extensively tornmanufacture textile composites. During the VARTM process, compaction alongrnwith the temperature cycle is applied to accelerate the curing process. Due to thernpresence of woven yarns, the adjacent layers of fabric compress against each otherrnduring the curing process, resulting in stress concentrations within the composite.rnThese stress concentrations act as damage catalyzing points within the composite.rnThis is highly undesirable, as it will lead to failure initiation and propagation withinrnthe material, resulting in premature failure of the composite, when used in service.rnTherefore, compaction on dry fabric during composite manufacturing requires inrndepth investigation to reduce the effects of stress concentrations, and prematurernfailure in composites manufactured.rnInvestigating the effects of various process parameters (here cure cycle andrncompaction) of the VARTM process experimentally is very time extensive. Towardsrnthat, a high fidelity mesoscale computational tool is developed to determine therninfluence of the curing cycle and compaction on the quality of the compositernmanufactured. In this model, the curing of varying strength resins within therncompacted models subjected to varying cure cycles is carried out. The extent ofrndamage and failure caused in the composite due to varying compaction andrntemperature of the curing cycle is predicted computationally in this paper. Thernoverarching computational framework under development will encompass the effectsrnof compaction, curing of the liquid resin, and subsequent response to service loadsrn(example tensile loading).