Abstract
The increased usage of fiber reinforced polymer composites in load bearing applications requires a detailed understanding of the process induced residual stresses and their effect on the shape distortions. This is utmost necessary in order to have more reliable composite manufacturing since the residual stresses alter the internal stress level of the composite part during the service life and the residual shape distortions may lead to not meeting the desired geometrical tolerances. The occurrence of residual stresses during the manufacturing process inherently contains diverse interactions between the involved physical phenomena mainly related to material flow, heat transfer and polymerization or crystallization. Development of numerical process models is required for virtual design and optimization of the composite manufacturing process which avoids the expensive trial-and-error based approaches. The process models as well as applications focusing on the prediction of residual stresses and shape distortions taking place in composite manufacturing are discussed in this study. The applications on both thermoset and thermoplastic based composites are reviewed in detail.
Highlights
Fiber reinforced composite materials have been increasingly used in various structural components in the aerospace, marine, automotive and wind energy sectors
The residual stresses at this scale do not cause any distortions of the composite laminate they adversely affect the strength of the laminate by matrix cracking
Transient heat transfer is an important phenomenon in terms of residual stresses, since it causes thermal gradients which may result in differential vitrification or solidification as aforementioned
Summary
Fiber reinforced composite materials have been increasingly used in various structural components in the aerospace, marine, automotive and wind energy sectors. The most common problem is that geometrical variations may depend on lay-up, material, processing temperature, tooling geometry etc., which makes the problem more complex To solve this problem requires more powerful computational models. Developing computational models requires deep knowledge of the mechanisms generating the geometrical variations In this context residual stresses developed during manufacturing should be examined. The residual stresses at this scale do not cause any distortions of the composite laminate they adversely affect the strength of the laminate by matrix cracking The stresses at this scale are self-equilibrating so that they do not lead to large deformations. Since the primary focus of this review paper is on the process models to predict the residual stresses and shape distortions during composites manufacturing, phenomena such as intimate contact, bonding, void growth, and polymer degradation and the related models are not reviewed here
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
