Numerical analysis of a model of cure process for composites

We consider a composite material composed of fibres included in a resin which becomes solid when it is heated up (reaction of reticulation). The mathematical modelling of the cure process is given by a kinetic equation describing the evolution of the reaction of reticulation coupled with the heat equation. In this paper, we are interested in the computation of approximate solutions. We propose a family of discretized problems depending on two parameters (β₁, β₂) ε 0, 1]² which split the linear and non‐ linear terms in implicit and explicit parts. We prove the stability and convergence of the discretization for any (β₁, β₂) ε ½, 1 ] × 0, 1]. We present also some numerical results. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.