Curing Process-induced Internal Stress and Deformation of Fiber Reinforced Resin Matrix Composites: Numerical Comparison between Elastic and Viscoelastic Models

Curing process-induced internal stress and deformation are major problems that restrict the wildly used of carbon fiber/epoxy composites in aerospace and vehicle industry. The finite element simulations of the evolution of cure-induced internal stress and curing deformation of the AS4/3601-6 composites are carried out using both elastic and viscoelastic models. The differences between these two kinds of numerical results are analyzed. The numerical results show that the difference between the two decreases with the increase of the fiber volume fraction or the decrease of the resin curing shrinkage. The comparative analysis is helpful for clearly understanding the deformation mechanism and then optimally designing the processing conditions in accordance with the specific needs.