DIE AND POST-DIE TEMPERATURE AND CURE IN GRAPHITE EPOXY COMPOSITES/

A numerical model has been developed to analyze the die and post-die t emperature and degree of cure profiles in pultruded composites. The mo del utilizes a fixed control volume based finite difference approach ( S. V. Patankar, Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow. McGraw-Hill, N Y, 1980). The method was used to solve the coupled non-linear three-di mensional steady-state energy and species equations for a cylindrical coordinate system. The species equation utilizes the one step Arrheniu s reaction rate equation for an epoxy resin system. The kinetic parame ters used for the epoxy resin to predict the temperature and degree of cure profiles were obtained from the differential scanning calorimete r (DSC) scans. The model is used to predict the temperature and degree of cure for the pultruded composite both inside the die and in the po st-die sections. The post-die curing is important since the composite processing temperature is quite high and curing continues for some tim e even after the composite exits the die. The processing conditions ex amined in this study were die wall temperature settings, pull speed an d fiber volume fraction.