Thermo-chemical modeling of an economical manufacturing technique for composite structures

Polymeric composite material fabrication costs are prohibitively high for their use in many industrial applications. Typical manufacturing cycle times are quite long. An economical processing method called continuous curing is presented for the progressive lay-up and cure of thick composite structures. Since this manufacturing method combines the lay-up and curing processes, cure cycle times are nonexistent. A one-dimensional combined thermo-chemical model is developed to track the cure and thermal distributions as they progress through the laminate thickness during manufacture. Results indicate the feasibility of this technique for the continuous curing of thick polymeric composite systems. Both graphite/epoxy and glass/polyester systems are investigated in the paper.