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TOOLED THICK COMPOSITES by ARVEN H. SAUNDERS III ...

TOOLED THICK COMPOSITES by ARVEN H. SAUNDERS III ...

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ABSTRACT<br />

PROCESS MODELING SYSTEM FOR PRESS CURE, CLOSED-CAVITY-<br />

Supervising Professor: Don Liles<br />

<strong>TOOLED</strong> <strong>THICK</strong> <strong>COMPOSITES</strong><br />

Arven H. Saunders, <strong>III</strong>, PhD<br />

The University of Texas at Arlington, 2011<br />

Thick structural composite parts often use press curing with closed-cavity tooling for<br />

achieving dimensional tolerances. A commonly encountered defect for these parts is fiber<br />

waviness, which limits its structural strength. The yield for such parts often suffers due to trial<br />

and error methods used to develop successful cure processes. In addition, yield for these parts<br />

suffers due to material variation. The objectives that were accomplished through this research<br />

were to: develop and validate a simplified yet practical cure process model for press cured thick<br />

composite parts, utilize the model in order to seek time-efficient optimized cure processes,<br />

investigate the effects of material variation on optimized cure processes, and to utilize the<br />

model to investigate the origins of fiber waviness. The model was found to indicate the<br />

conditions under which it is likely that fiber waviness occurs.<br />

iv

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