AN ANALYTICAL TOOL FOR STUDYING THE IMPACT OF PROCESS PARAMETERS ON THE MECHANICAL RESPONSE OF COMPOSITES

The present work presents a numerical framework able to predict the impact of the manufacturing process on the mechanical performance of the composite component. A simple one-dimensional thermochemical model has been used to predict the evolution of the degree of cure of the resin for a given thermal cycle. The homogenized properties at the lamina level have been obtained through a classical mixtures law and employed to predict the process-induced deformations. A refined one-dimensional model, derived in the framework of the Carrera Unified Formulation, has been used to provide accurate results with reduced computational costs. The virtual manufacturing framework has been used to investigate the impact of the process parameters on process-induced defects of a simple composite part. Different curing cycles have been considered and their outcomes discussed. The results demonstrate the capability of the present numerical tool to correlate the manufacturing process parameters with the mechanical performances of the final component.