Measurement of residual stresses in thick composite cylinders by the radial-cut-cylinder-bending method

Thick fabric composite cylinders for nozzle parts in solid rocket motors should be designed to endure the extreme temperature and pressure of combustion gas. As the thickness of the composite cylinder increases, fabricational residual stresses due to the anisotropic thermal expansion or shrinkage of fabric composites also increase, which induces inter-laminar failures. Therefore, the accurate estimation of the residual stresses is indispensable for the development of thick fabric composite cylinders.

In this paper, the residual stresses in thick cylinders made of carbon fabric phenolic composites were measured by a new radial-cut-cylinder-bending method. To obtain the residual stresses from the measured relative strains during the radial-cut operation, a bending test of the cylinder with the radial-cut was performed instead of measuring the material properties with respect to radial positions. The thermal residual stresses were also calculated by finite element method considering shear deformation of fabric layers, and compared with the measured residual stresses by the new method, from which it was found that the new simple method estimated the residual stresses pretty well. Also the inter-laminar tensile strength at the position of maximum radial residual stress could be obtained from the bending test.     

Compaction of thick carbon/phenolic fabric composites with autoclave method

Carbon/phenolic composites are used in the nozzle parts of solid rocket motors due to their heat-resisting, ablative, and high strength characteristics, which are required to endure the high temperature and pressure of combustion gas passing through the nozzle. But the thick axi-symmetric structure of the composite nozzle induces high thermal residual stresses due to the large difference of coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between the in-plane and the out-of-plane. In this work, in order to reduce the through-thickness CTE and the void content, a compression in the thickness direction was applied to the composite prepreg by a compressive jig during manufacturing of composite to supplement the low autoclave pressure. The through-thickness CTE of the fabric composite was calculated by a compaction model and compared with the measured one by thermo-mechanical analysis. The through-thickness CTE changed drastically with respect to the compaction amount, and the void content of the carbon/phenolic fabric composite laminate showed different characteristics from the ordinary fabric laminates with respect to the autoclave pressure and the jig pressure.     

Effect of the smart cure cycle on the performance of the co-cured aluminum/composite hybrid shaft

In this work, a smart curing method for the co-cured aluminum/composite hybrid shaft which can reduce the thermal residual stresses generated during co-curing bonding operation between the composite layer and the aluminum tube was applied. In order to reduce the thermal residual stresses generated during co-cure bonding stages due to the difference of coefficients of thermal expansions (CTE) of the composite and the aluminum tube, a smart cure cycle composed of cooling and reheating cycles was applied. The heating and cooling operations were realized using a pan type heater and water cooling system. The thermo-mechanical properties of the high modulus carbon epoxy composite were measured by a DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) and rheometer to obtain an optimal time to apply the cooling operation. Curvature experiment of the co-cure bonded steel/composite strip was performed to investigate the effect of cure cycle on generation of the thermal residual stress. Also, the thermal residual stresses of the aluminum/composite hybrid shaft were measured using strain gauges with respect to cure cycles.

Finally, torsional fatigue test and vibration test of the aluminum/composite hybrid shaft were performed, and it has been found that this method might be used effectively in manufacturing of the co-cured aluminum/composite hybrid propeller shaft to improve the dynamic torque characteristics.     

Smart cure cycles for the adhesive joint of composite structures at cryogenic temperatures

Adhesive joints are employed for composite structures used at the cryogenic temperatures such as LNG (liquefied natural gas) insulating tanks and satellite structures. The strength of the adhesive joints at the cryogenic temperatures is influenced by the property variation of adhesive and the thermal residual stress generated due to the large temperature difference (ΔT) from the adhesive bonding process to the operating temperature. Therefore, in this work, the strength and thermal residual stress of the epoxy adhesive at cryogenic temperatures were measured with respect to cure cycle. Also, the cure cycles composed of gradual heating, rapid cooling and reheating steps were applied to the adhesive joints to reduce the thermal residual stress in the adhesive joints with short curing time. Finally, a smart cure method was developed to improve the adhesive joint strength and to reduce the cure time for the composite sandwich structures at cryogenic temperatures.     

Curing of Thick Thermoset Composite Laminates: Multiphysics Modeling and Experiments

Fiber reinforced polymer composites are used in high-performance aerospace applications as they are resistant to fatigue, corrosion free and possess high specific strength. The mechanical properties of these composite components depend on the degree of cure and residual stresses developed during the curing process. While these parameters are difficult to determine experimentally in large and complex parts, they can be simulated using numerical models in a cost-effective manner. These simulations can be used to develop cure cycles and change processing parameters to obtain high-quality parts. In the current work, a numerical model was built in Comsol MultiPhysics to simulate the cure behavior of a carbon/epoxy prepreg system (IM7/Cycom 5320–1). A thermal spike was observed in thick laminates when the recommended cure cycle was used. The cure cycle was modified to reduce the thermal spike and maintain the degree of cure at the laminate center. A parametric study was performed to evaluate the effect of air flow in the oven, post cure cycles and cure temperatures on the thermal spike and the resultant degree of cure in the laminate.     

Strength prediction of tubular composite adhesive joints under torsion

This paper addresses prediction of the strength of tubular adhesive joints with composite adherends by combining thermal and mechanical analyses. A finite element analysis was used to calculate the residual thermal stresses generated by cooling down from the adhesive cure temperature, and a nonlinear analysis incorporating the nonlinear adhesive behavior was performed to accurately estimate the mechanical stresses in the adhesive. Joint failure was estimated by three failure criteria: interfacial failure, adhesive bulk failure, and adherend failure. The distributions of residual thermal stresses were investigated for various stacking angles. The effect of residual thermal stresses on joint strength was also taken into consideration. The results indicate that the residual thermal stresses, depending on the stacking angle, have a significant influence on the failure mode and strength of adhesive joints when a subsequent mechanical load is applied. Good agreement is also obtained between the predicted joint strength and the available experimental data.     

碳纤维丝束结构对碳纤维/酚醛复合材料烧蚀性能的影响EI北大核心CSCD

以酚醛树脂为基体,以平纹碳布和短切碳纤维两种结构形式的碳纤维为增强剂,制备碳纤维增强的碳/酚醛复合材料。采用氧/乙炔烧蚀实验对复合材料的耐烧蚀性能进行了对比性研究,采用电子拉力试验机对复合材料的弯曲性能进行表征,采用扫描电镜对复合材料烧蚀形面进行观察,并通过固体火箭发动机对复合材料的烧蚀性能进行考核验证。研究结果表明:以这两种结构形式的碳纤维为增强剂制备的碳/酚醛复合材料,其氧乙炔质量烧蚀率的大小与碳纤维丝束的大小具有正相关的特性,碳纤维丝束越小碳纤维质量烧蚀率越低,当碳纤维增强剂处于单丝状态时,复合材料的氧乙炔质量烧蚀率达到最低为0.046 g/s,并且碳纤维的型号规格对复合材料氧乙炔质量烧蚀率的影响变小。固体火箭发动机实验表明,单丝状态下的碳纤维/酚醛复合材料的抗烧蚀冲刷性能明显优于束状碳纤维/酚醛复合材料。     

碳纳米管增强镁基复合材料热残余应力的有限元分析

为了探寻Ni层厚度对镀镍碳纳米管增强AZ91D镁基复合材料(Ni-CNTs/AZ91D)中热残余应力的影响, 在实验基础上, 建立不同Ni层厚度时Ni-CNTs/AZ91D复合材料的有限元模型, 模拟了Ni-CNTs/AZ91D复合材料中热残余应力的分布。研究发现: 在碳纳米管表面镀镍能够明显降低Ni-CNTs/AZ91D复合材料中的热残余应力。Ni-CNTs/AZ91D复合材料中, 热残余应力在Ni层厚度为6nm时最小; Ni层厚度由2nm增至6nm时, 热残余应力随着Ni层厚度的增加而减小; 当Ni层厚度超过6 nm时热残余应力随着Ni层厚度的增加而增大。复合材料中热残余应力的最大值随碳纳米管表面Ni层厚度的增加向Ni层与基体的界面移动。      

Static stress analysis of carbon nano-tube reinforced composite (CNTRC) cylinder under non-axisymmetric thermo-mechanical loads and uniform electro-magnetic fields

Static stresses analysis of carbon nano-tube reinforced composite (CNTRC) cylinder made of poly-vinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is investigated in this study. Non-axisymmetric thermo-mechanical loads are applied on cylinder in presence of uniform longitudinal magnetic field and radial electric field. The surrounded elastic medium is modeled by Pasternak foundation because of its advantages to the Winkler type. Distribution of radial, circumferential and effective stresses, temperature field and electric displacements in CNTRC cylinder are determined based on Mori–Tanaka theory. The detailed parametric study is conducted, focusing on the remarkable effects of magnetic field intensity, elastic medium, angle orientation and volume fraction of carbon nano-tubes (CNTs) on distribution of effective stress. Results demonstrated that fatigue life of CNTRC cylinder will be significantly dependent on magnetic intensity, angle orientation and volume fraction of CNTs. Results of this research can be used for optimum design of thick-walled cylinders under multi-physical fields.     

复合材料固化相关黏弹性性能演化及残余应力分析

通过对复合材料固化度和温度相关黏弹性本构方程的分析,定义一个能综合反映固化度和温度等对复合材料黏弹性性能影响的无量纲参数De_m。当参数De_m都大于10~2时,复合材料基体处于流动状态;当参数De_m都小于10~(-2)时,复合材料为弹性状态;仅当部分参数De_m小于10~2而大于10~(-2)时,复合材料处于黏弹性状态。以AS4纤维/3501-6树脂复合材料为例,基于对其参数De_m在典型固化工艺过程中的演化,研究该复合材料黏弹性性能的发展过程,发现基于参数De_m分析得到的凝胶点时间与实验结果一致。根据复合材料黏弹性性能对残余应力发展的影响,将复合材料残余应力计算分为流动阶段和黏弹性阶段,并建立了相应的状态相关黏弹性本构模型。最后通过与原始模型预测结果的比较验证了提出的本构模型,表明本文提出的计算方法与原始黏弹性本构模型计算结果一致,但大大降低了计算所需的时间和存储空间。     

CURE-DEPENDENT VISCOELASTIC RESIDUAL STRESS ANALYSIS OF FILAMENT-WOUND COMPOSITE CYLINDERS

The residual stresses induced during processing of [0/90] Tcross-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 hare 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.     

复合材料定向管热弹动力响应特性研究

为研究复合材料定向管热弹性问题,采用求解轴对称流动Euler方程组的正格式方法对管内火箭燃气射流场进行数值模拟,得到了管内流场热力载荷。运用非线性有限元方法,建立了复合材料定向管非线性热弹性有限元模型,将定向管模态计算结果与模态试验结果作比较,验证了有限元模型的有效性,计算了复合材料定向管分别在火箭燃气动压载荷、非定常温度场和耦合状态下的动力学响应。结果表明：由非定常温度场热冲击引起的定向管内壁面热应力响应呈现脉冲形状,轴向应力对复合材料定向管定位部间管段的应力响应影响较径向应力和周向应力明显,热冲击引起的热应力在复合材料定向管的热弹性应力响应中占主导作用。     

Characteristics of carbon fiber phenolic composite for journal bearing materials

Journal bearing materials are required to have special characteristics such as compatibility with rubbing interface materials, embeddability for particles and wear debris, conformability to accommodate misalignment, thermal and corrosion resistance. Although white metals or babbitt metals used in most journal bearing have almost the required characteristics, they have possibility of seizure between the bearing material and the journal when the oil film is broken.

In this study, a hybrid composite journal bearing composed of carbon fiber reinforced phenolic composite liner and metal backing was manufactured to solve the seizure problem of metallic journal bearing materials because the carbon fiber has self-lubricating ability and the phenolic resin has thermal resistance characteristics. To estimate the wear resistance of carbon fiber phenolic composite, wear tests were performed at several pressures and velocities. The oil absorption characteristics, coefficient of thermal expansion, strength and stiffness of the composite were also tested. Using the measured stiffness values, the thermal residual stresses in the composite were calculated to check the reliability of the composite journal bearing.     

Study on the curing process for carbon/epoxy composites to reduce thermal residual stress

In this work, a cure monitoring system using dielectrometry and a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor, was devised to measure the dissipation factor and thermal residual stress of carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy composite materials. Three rapid-cooling points, which were based on the cure initiation point, were chosen as test variables to investigate the effect of cure cycle on process-induced internal strain. The internal strains generated in the composite specimens were measured using embedded FBG sensors. Three-point bending tests were conducted to investigate the effect of thermal residual stress on the flexural strength of the composite specimens.     

Ablation,mechanical and thermal conductivity properties of vapor grown carbon fiber/phenolic matrix composites

The ablation, mechanical and thermal properties of vapor grown carbon fiber (VGCF) (Pyrograf III™ Applied Sciences, Inc.)/phenolic resin (SC-1008, Borden Chemical, Inc.) composites were evaluated to determine the potential of using this material in solid rocket motor nozzles. Composite specimens with varying VGCF loadings (30–50% wt.) including one sample with ex-rayon carbon fiber plies were prepared and exposed to a plasma torch for 20 s with a heat flux of 16.5 MW/m² at approximately 1650°C. Low erosion rates and little char formation were observed, confirming that these materials were promising for rocket motor nozzle materials. When fiber loadings increased, mechanical properties and ablative properties improved. The VGCF composites had low thermal conductivities (approximately 0.56 W/m-K) indicating they were good insulating materials. If a 65% fiber loading in VGCF composite could be achieved, then ablative properties are projected to be comparable to or better than the composite material currently used on the Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM).     

Inverse algorithm for optimal processing of composite materials

During thermoset composite materials processing, the chemical reaction is highly exothermic and because of the low thermal conductivity of the material, significant temperature and state of cure gradients can be generated in thick parts. This creates non-uniform stresses that provoke defects. We propose to control the transformation by monitoring the temperature of the mold walls. A general inverse analysis based on the conjugate gradient method of minimization associated to the adjoint equations is used. After having detailed the method, we propose two examples. The first one presents an optimal cycle to obtain uniform conversion at the end of the curing of an epoxy/glass-fiber composite. The second example is concerned with the control of the temperature variations during the curing of a polyester/glass-fiber composite. The method is experimentally validated and proves to be very powerful and flexible.     

The effect of thermal mismatch on Z-pinned laminated composite structures

Z-pinning is a method of improving the through-thickness properties of composite laminates by inserting a solid pin through the laminate prior to curing. The thermal expansion mismatch between the Z-pin and base laminate produces large residual stresses during the cure cycle. Finite element modelling has shown that these stresses are greater than the failure stress of standard resin systems indicating the resin around the Z-pin should fail. This was confirmed through microscopy, which showed cracking around the perimeter of the Z-pin. Changing the material properties and dimension of the model to represent different Z-pinning situations could not significantly reduce the residual stresses, indicating cracking should occur in all Z-pinned laminates. These results show that probably all published Z-pinning properties have been obtained from laminates that would have exhibited cracking, indicating that the improved through-thickness properties are due more to mechanical interlocking than bonding. Questions are raised about the suitability of using Z-pinned laminates in specific applications, and the effects of increased moisture ingress and long term durability.     

Nichtlineares inverses Wärmeleitungsproblem bei der Überwachung von Wärmespannungen

A new method to solve the problem of transient heat conduction in cylindrical bodies is presented. This method allows transient temperature and thermal stress distribution to be determined from interior temperature histories. The thermal stresses at the inner surface can be estimated by a temperature sensor placed only at the outer surface. The problem of inverse heat conduction was solved using the least squares method with the following stabilizing techniques: smoothing of the temperature-time curves, regularization of the inverse algorithm, future time steps. Two examples are shown to demonstrate the influence of the number of temperature sensors on the accuracy of the calculation. In a third example, the developed method is used to calculate the temperature coefficient and thermal stresses at the inner surface of a thick-walled cylinder using temperature histories from three locations on the outer surface.     

固体火箭发动机喷管型面的研究进展

固体火箭发动机喷管型面设计直接关系到喷管效率和推力大小,是喷管设计中的重要研究课题。本文从喷管型面设计方法、型面参数优化和喷管流固热耦合分析等方面综述了国内外对固体火箭发动机喷管型面的研究进展。总结出了直接优化方法、特型喷管的设计方法、六次Bézier曲线、双三次样条曲线构造扩张段型线和B-Spline曲线和特征线方法等喷管型面的设计方法,并介绍了计算流体动力学(CFD)和随机优化方法在固体火箭发动机(SRM)设计优化中的运用。分析了固体火箭发动机喷管涉及到的流固热耦合问题,并结合文献介绍了经典CFD算法、CBS有限元算法和格子波尔兹曼在研究流固热耦合问题上的运用。     

In situ monitoring of the strain evolution and curing reaction of composite laminates to reduce the thermal residual stress using FBG sensor and dielectrometry

Generally, a large, thermal residual stress is generated during the curing process for composite laminates due to differences in the coefficients of thermal expansion of the respective layers. The thermal residual stress during fabrication greatly decreases the fatigue life and dimensional accuracy of the composite structures. In the present study, through a fiber bragg grating (FBG) sensor and dielectrometry in an autoclave, the strain evolution and curing reaction in composite laminates with a stacking sequence of [0₅/90₅]_S were monitored simultaneously during a conventional cure cycle and a modified cure cycle to reduce the thermal residual stress. From the study, it was verified that about 50% of the thermal residual stress during fabrication could be reduced in a composite laminate by adjusting the cure cycle; this improved the static strength and fatigue life by 16% and up to 614%, respectively, for a peak ratio of 0.9.