Study on the Effect of Cure Cycle on the Process Induced Deformation of Cap Shaped Stiffened Composite Panels

Cap-shaped stiffened composite panels offer many excellent properties such as low density, high strength, high stiffness to weight ratio, and design flexibility. During their manufacturing processes, however, thermo-curing inherently produces the undesired residual stresses and cure deformations, which limits the applications of composite structures in a certain degree. In order to reduce the cure deformation, in this paper, the effect of cure cycle (curing temperature, curing pressure, cooling rate) on the process-induced deformation of cap-shaped stiffened composite panels was presented. A simple mathematical model based on the curing dynamics was established to predict the deformation of the cap-shaped stiffened composite panels. The deformation calculated by the mathematical model and experimental studies were compared, and an Error Correction Model was established. The Error Correction Model showed a good agreement with the experimental results.