Modelling and Simulation of Curing Processes of Epoxy Resin

During the curing reaction, the adhesive changes its thermomechanical material behaviour from a viscous fluid to a viscoelastic solid. This phase transition is an exothermal chemical reaction which is accompanied by thermal expansion, chemical shrinkage and changes in temperature. In this work the numerical simulation of the curing process will be presented. The material model for the implementation is presented in [1]. For the implementation of the material model the consistent tangent operator has been derived. In the presentation, experimental data and simulation are shown. (© 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)