The role of curing stresses in subsequent response, damage and failure of textile polymer composites

An integrated computational framework for textile polymer composites is introduced. A novel polymer curing model is used in connection with modeling the polymer curing process during manufacturing of textile composites. The model is based on the notion of polymer networks that are continuously formed in a body of changing shape due to changes in temperature, chemistry and external loads. Nonlinear material behavior is incorporated through nonlocal continuum damage mechanics that preserves mesh objectivity in calculations that go beyond maximum loads. The integrated model is applied to the curing of plain weave textile composites made from carbon fiber tows and Epon ™ 862 resin. The mechanical and chemical properties are measured during curing using concurrent Brillouin and Raman light scattering. It is shown that significant stresses can develop during cure. The effect of these stresses on the manufactured part performance, when subsequent service loads are applied, is evaluated and a reduction in ultimate load, in agreement with experimental observations, is observed.