• curing process
• micromechanical analysis
• unidirectional composites

The aim of the present work is to study the effect of curing process on the mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composites. Computational model is realized by user-defined material subroutines and several analysis are performed using commercial finite element solver (Abaqus).
Representative volume elements (RVEs) are analyzed with periodic boundary conditions (PBCs). The failure model used in the investigtion is based on the principle of conservation of energy, suggested by Hansen and coworkers. At first hexagonally packed RVEs undergo curing and are used to show the influence in damaging of different fiber volume fractions. Then Random packed RVEs are first subjected to curing and subsequently to mechanical loading. The results are used to represent the effect of the fiber packing randomness on the evolution of damage/failure.
Results show how the curing process can affect mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composites, reducing the stiffness of the matrix.