NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF CURING PROCESS FOR FILAMENTWOUND PRESSURE VESSEL WITHMETAL LINER

The curing process of the filament wound pressure vessel with metal liner is simulated. A methodologyis proposed for predicting the evolution of the dist ributions of temperature and process-induced st ress fields duringthe whole curing process. Based on cure kinetic , t ransit heat conductive and composite laminated st ress analysis theories , the corresponding formulas of the finite element method are briefly int roduced. A typical numerical example ispresented to illust rate it . The result s show that the temperature and process-induced thermo-st ress fields involvecomplex variations during the curing process , and the peak values for all st ress component s tend to occur simultaneously at the beginning cooling down stage , whose magnitudes are related to the variations of the temperature in theautoclave during the curing process. The numerical simulation method and conclusions could be of great value to engineers of the composite st ructures.