Simulation and Validation of Cure Kinetics for Cavity Molded Composites

Abstract

Thick composite flex-beams are manufactured by press curing in closed cavity molds to achieve high dimensional tolerances. A composite flex-beam is characterized by thickness variation along its length, which results in a complex curing process. The polymerization reaction of thermosetting resin is exothermic in nature and can cause uneven curing in composite flex-beams using the manufacturer recommended cure cycle. Cure cycle optimization of composite flex-beams will result in higher quality parts. The objective of this work is to develop advanced computational models for cavity molded thick composite flex-beams and investigate complex factors that determine success of the process. A three-dimensional thermo-mechanical finite element model is developed for simulating the cure process in composite flex-beam. The cure kinetic parameters for finite element modeling are derived from experiments. Isothermal and dynamic differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) tests are conducted to study the resin behavior. An advanced artificial neural networks (ANN) based procedure is developed to extract the cure kinetic parameters from DSC scans. Also, an ANN based model is developed and integrated with thermo-mechanical finite element model to optimize the cure cycle for cavity molded composite flex-beam.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-193455116-5

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2024 Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2014

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