THE SIMULTANEOUS PROCESS OF FILAMENT WINDING AND CURING FOR POLYMER COMPOSITES

The simultaneous process of filament winding and curing a composite cylindrical shell is considered. From the macrokinetic point of view it is characterized by the small thickness of the relative effective reaction zone. The thermochemical conditions in manufacturing are governed by the following process variables: speed of winding, initial conversion and temperature of the filament bundle wound, and the heating applied. A thermochemical model is developed for simulation of the temperature and conversion distributions during the process. An approximate solution of the thermochemical model in the form of the constant traveling wave is derived for constant values of process variables and a thermally isolated mandrel. A non-uniform cure stress model of the process is developed for the case of using elastic orthotropic constitutive relations for a composite material. It is found that the thickness of the relative effective reaction zone drastically influences the cure stresses. The dependence of the stress level on the process variables is analyzed.