Abstract
A new composite manufacturing technique called continuous curing has been developed to alleviate problems in the processing of thick composites such as long manufacturing cycle times and material degradation due to thermal spiking. A 10 cm thick graphite/epoxy (AS4/3501-6) laminate was fabricated using the continuous curing technique. The thermal distributions were measured during the process and the final cure distribution was obtained by DSC testing. The mechanical performance of the laminate was analyzed by destructive testing of 16-ply mechanical test specimens removed from the bulk laminate. These specimens were distributed at five locations across the thickness of the laminate. Results for longitudinal compressive strength, transverse tensile strength, and interlaminar shear strength show some degradation. Optical microscopy and image analysis was performed to obtain void and fiber volume distributions across the laminate thickness. The degradation in strength can be attributed to nonuniform consolidation and excessive voids.
| Original language | English |
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| Pages | 109-118 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| State | Published - 1994 |
| Event | Proceedings of the 8th Technical Conference of the American Society for Composites (ASC) - Cleveland, OH, USA Duration: 19 Oct 1993 → 21 Oct 1993 |
Conference
| Conference | Proceedings of the 8th Technical Conference of the American Society for Composites (ASC) |
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| City | Cleveland, OH, USA |
| Period | 19/10/93 → 21/10/93 |