Simulation and experimental research of residual stress in fiber reinforce prepreg placement based on coupled thermo-mechanical model

Two methods were applied including finite element analysis calculation and experimental testing to investigate the residual stress occurring fiber reinforce prepreg placement processing under coupled thermal-mechanical loading. Firstly, coupled thermo-mechanical model of fiber reinforce prepreg placement was built in order to investigate residual stress on the surface of the fiber reinforce prepreg placement under different temperature and pressure parameters using the finite element analysis. Secondly, the results were analyzed and compared to see the basic influence rule of various temperature and pressure parameters on residual stresses in fiber reinforce prepreg placement. Finally, experimental study on residual stresses influences under different temperature and pressure placement parameters were carried out in fiber reinforce prepreg placement to validate the correctness of calculation results by coupled thermo-mechanical finite element model. The results show that the distribution of residual stress of the experimental results is in consistent with the predicted results and only the difference can be seen for the maximum residual stress.