Smart cure of thick composite filament wound structures to minimize the development of residual stresses

A set of control strategies is proposed and implemented to optimize curing process of thick filament wound structures. Two different problems are considered in this work. One is to maintain uniform degree of cure through the composite. The other is to initiate curing from the inside to the outside of the cylinder for reduction of the residual stresses. The proposed cure strategies are based on different sets of rules. The temperature is controlled based on the temperature readings acquired from the sensors embedded inside and outside of the composite. The rules force the temperatures to remain within a specified limit to constrain development of the residual stresses within an allowable value. To check the feasibility of the proposed scheme, a numerical model has been developed to predict development of the residual stresses. Furthermore, experimental setup is built and experiments have been performed.