Process-induced residual stresses and dimensional distortions in advanced laminated composites

Process induced residual stresses can degrade the performance of composite structures by consuming a significant portion of the strength in certain plies. Cracking due to overload of these plies can then lead to degradation by environmental effects. A technique called cure referencing method (CRM) has been developed for determining the residual stresses in flat laminated composites. In this technique a diffraction grating used for moiré interferometry is transferred onto a composite laminate from a master autoclave tool during the curing process. This transfer takes place at the cure temperature where the matrix solidifies from the liquid state. After cure and upon cooling, the deformation of the composite is recorded with moiré interferometry using the tool grating as the reference. The deformation of the composite is then a function of the thermal contraction due to the temperature difference from the cure temperature to room temperature and the deformation caused by chemical shrinkage. These measurements are first conducted on a unidirectional lamina. Using a specially designed oven, the thermal contraction component of the deformation is separated from the overall deformation. For flat multidirectional symmetrical laminates, the residual stresses in each layer and the in-plane dimensional distortions of the laminate are then calculated from the unidirectional information, constitutive equations, equilibrium equations, and compatibility conditions. Several assumptions, which are similar to those used in laminate theory, are also adopted. An independent method called shadow moiré is used to validate CRM. The shadow moiré method is used to measure the curvature of asymmetrical laminates while the lamination theory is used to calculate the curvature from lamina strain information measured with CRM. Good agreement validates the CRM. In addition, process induced strains on multi-directional composites were measured with the CRM. The validation of CRM and the methodology of predicting the residual stresses and dimensional distortions were achieved by comparing the measured residual strains with those determined through prediction using only the unidirectional material. The unique long term testing ability of the CRM is also demonstrated in this work. Initial investigation is conducted on the dimensional distortion of unidirectional curved composites. The out-of-plane chemical shrinkage is determined to be one order of magnitude higher than that of the in-plane in the transverse fiber direction that was measured using CRM.