Predicting Processing Induced Residual- Stresses in Carbon Fiber-Thermoplastic Micro-Composites

A computational model of residual stress is developed for AS4/polypropylene composites and implemented via user material subroutine (UMAT) in ABAQUS. The main factors included in the model are the cooling-rate dependent crystallinity, temperature-dependent elastic modulus, and temperature-dependent coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the matrix, and the temperature-independent transversely isotropic properties of the carbon fiber. Numerical results are generated for the case of a single fiber embedded in a thin film of polypropylene sample to replicate the process history and test configuration. During single fiber composite processing, a precalculated weight (tensile preload) is applied at the fiber ends to eliminate buckling/waviness of the carbon fiber induced by matrix shrinkage in the axial direction of the fiber. Experiments and Finite element (FE) analysis have been conducted with different preloads (1g, 4g, and 8g) at 25°C. Micro-Raman spectroscopy is utilized to validate the residual strain with different preloads at the bulk. The measured strain values show a good correlation with the predicted residual strain for various preload conditions.