Cure-dependent viscoelastic residual stress analysis of filament-wound composite cylinders

The residual stresses induced during processing of [0/90]_T cross-ply composite cylinders is examined. A cure-dependent viscoelastic material model is used to describe the development of material behavior during cure. A finite-element model is developed using a recursive formulation in order to overcome the large memory storage requirements and lengthy calculations. Both chemical and thermal strains are modeled. The geometry modeled includes a mandrel and Teflon separation film between the mandrel and the cross-ply tube. The mandrel was shown to have a profound influence on the level of residual stress during cure. For example, the maximum hoop stress during cure with a mandrel is 154 MPa. When no mandrel is used the maximum hoop stress is only 26 MPa. Chemical shrinkage was shown to increase the final residual stress in all cases analyzed, since both thermal shrinkage (during cool down) and chemical shrinkage (during cure) are additive. To some extent the mechanism of residual stress development in cylinders is much different compared to laminated composites. For cylinders the geometric constraint of the cylinder itself plays an important role. For example, the outer 90° layers in a [0/90]_T cylinder effectively prevent free expansion and contraction during curing. The effect is to induce radial and hoop stresses during cure.