Numerical Simulation of Composite Laminates during Cure Process
Chen Haorna, Yang Zhenglin, Tang Liming
(Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024)

Abstract: In the authors previous paper, the fields of temperature and cure degree of thermo-setting composite laminates during the whole cure process have been investigated by using a mixed finite element method with the Eular-Cauch decoupling iteration algorithm. In order to get better understanding of the residual load capability of the laminates and to improve their technical quality, it is necessary to further study the features of variation of inplane and interlaminar stress fields and corresponding failure phenomena during the wholde cure process. In the present paper, the Hamilton semi-analytic method on the transient thermal elastic problem developed by authors is united with two kinds of the failure and post failure models, which can describe the characteristic of failure and degradation of stiffness of the laminates within different stages of the curing process, for the investigation of the variation of thermo-stress and deformation field, and failure process of the laminates during the whole cure process. Some nume rical simulation results are given. From the discusion of the numerical results, it can be found that the thermo-stress fields appearing in several peak values in the laminates within initial, middle and last cure stage would be a reason to cause the early failure of the laminates and result in decreasing their load capability. The numerical conclusion and corresponding simulation method provided in this paper might be of a great value to technical engineers of composi te structure.
Keywords: numerical simulation, the cure process, composite laminates, Hamilton semi-analytical      method.