Doctoral Dissertations

Keywords and Phrases

Bismaleimide; Carbon fiber; Composites; FEA; Out-of-autoclave

Abstract

"High performance polymer composites possess high strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, and have design flexibility. Carbon/epoxy composites are commonly used aerospace materials. Bismaleimide based composites are used as a replacement for epoxy systems at higher service temperatures. Aerospace composites are usually manufactured, under high pressure, in an autoclave which requires high capital investments and operating costs. In contrast, out-of-autoclave manufacturing, specifically vacuum-bag-only prepreg process, is capable of producing low cost and high performance composites. In the current study, out-of-autoclave processing of high temperature carbon/bismaleimide composites was evaluated. The cure and process parameters were optimized. The properties of out-of-autoclave cured laminates compared well to autoclave manufactured composites. Numerical models were developed which simulate the curing process in composite laminates and used to optimize cycles and change processing parameters to obtain high-quality parts. The results were extended to enable manufacturing of high temperature composite sandwich structures. Sandwich structures were manufactured and thermo-mechanical properties were evaluated. Numerical models were built to simulate the effect of elevated temperatures on composite sandwich structures and validated using experiments. The results show that it is feasible to manufacture lab-scale high quality composites using the out-of-autoclave process. Also, numerical models are powerful tools which can be used to optimize cure cycles and simulate thermo-mechanical behavior of these composite parts"--Abstract, page iv.

Advisor(s)

Chandrashekhara, K.

Committee Member(s)

Okafor, A. Chukwujekwu (Anthony Chukwujekwu)
Birman, V. (Victor)
Yang, Xiaodong
Samaranayake, V. A.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Mechanical Engineering

Sponsor(s)

Missouri University of Science and Technology. Center for Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies
Missouri University of Science and Technology. Intelligent Systems Center
Technical Data Analysis, Inc.
Small Business Technology Transfer Program (United States. Department of Defense)

Comments

This work was supported by the Center for Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies (CAMT) and the Intelligent Systems Center (ISC) at Missouri S&T.

This research is sponsored by the Industrial Consortium of the Center for Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies (CAMT) at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

This work was supported by Technical Data Analysis, Inc. through the STTR N15A-T003 Phase I contract number N68335-15-C-0223.

Research Center/Lab(s)

Intelligent Systems Center

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2018

Journal article titles appearing in thesis/dissertation

  • Influence of cure conditions on out-of-autoclave bismaleimide composite laminates
  • Processing and performance of out-of-autoclave bismaleimide composite sandwich structures
  • Curing of thick thermoset composite laminates: Multiphysics modeling and experiments
  • Investigation of sandwich composite failure under three-point bending: Simulation and experimental validation

Pagination

xviii, 125 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographic references.

Rights

© 2018 Sudharshan Anandan, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11471

Electronic OCLC #

1104294808

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