Stochastic simulation of the influence of fibre path variability on the formation of residual stress and shape distortion

A stochastic cure simulation approach is developed and implemented to investigate the influence of fibre misalignment on cure. Image analysis is used to characterize fiber misalignment in a carbon non‐crimp fabric. It is found that variability in tow orientation is significant with a standard deviation of 1.2°. The autocorrelation structure is modeled using the Ornstein‐Uhlenbeck sheet and the stochastic problem is addressed by coupling a finite element model of cure with a Monte Carlo scheme. Simulation of the cure of an angle shaped carbon fiber‐epoxy component shows that fiber misalignment can cause considerable variability in the process outcome with a coefficient of variation in maximum residual stress up to approximately 2% (standard deviation of 1 MPa) and qualitative and quantitative variations in final distortion of the cured part with the standard deviation in twist and corner angle reaching values of 0.4° and 0.05° respectively. POLYM. COMPOS., 38:2642–2652, 2017. © 2015 The Authors Polymer Composites published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Plastics Engineers