Curing of thick angle-bend thermoset composite part: curing cycle effect on thickness variation and fiber volume fraction

摘要

The effect of cure cycle on the qulaity of angle-bend thermoset composite parts is presented. A 2-D finite differnce scheme was used to model the processing of arbitrary shaped composite laminates. This model includes heat transfer, viscosity, rate of cure, and resin flow submodels. Experiments were done to investigate the effect of different curing cycles on thickness variation and fiber volume fraction distribution. Results form both simulation and experiment were compared. (Example materials: graphite-epoxy prepreg.)