Simulation of temperature field for an advanced grid-stiffened composite structure in the co-curing process

Based on the software ANSYS, a user-program was developed for simulating the variation of temperature-cure degree coupling field in a composite curing process. Both of a 2D and 3D finite element models were used to analyze the coupling field in an advanced orthogonal grid-stiffened composite structure during the soft-mold aided co-curing process. The calculation results show that the 2D finite element model proposed in the paper could effectively simulate the co-curing process for an advanced grid-stiffened composite structure with a larger time step regardless the node of crossing ribs, and the 3D precise finite element model could be employed to obtain the distribution of temperature and cure degree fields accurately considering the node of crossing ribs. It is found that the temperature near the node of crossing ribs in the advanced grid-stiffened composite structure is obviously higher than other areas during the co-curing process.