Technical Papers and Presentations

Multi-physics simulations of the evolution of cure induced stresses in a viscoelastic thermoset polymeric resin are presented. The viscoelastic material model is implemented with a relaxation spectrum with 34 relaxation time constants. The trends in viscoelastic stresses at different degrees of cure and temperatures are compared and contrasted with an equivalent cure–dependent (but timeinvariant) elastic material model. The material models are implemented in the context of the cure of a thick thermoset resin part, to explore the combined effect of multiple phenomena – mold-part interaction, cure shrinkage strains, thermal strains, and the exothermic heat of reaction resulting in a two way coupling between heat transfer and chemical kinetics – on the evolution of residual stresses and springback.