Analytical and Experimental Study of Residual Stresses in CFRP

Fiber Bragg Grating sensors (FBGs) have been utilized in various engineering and photoelectric fields because of their good environment tolerance. In this research, residual stresses of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites (CFRP) were studied using both experimental and analytical approach. The FBGs were embedded inside middle layers of CFRP to study the formation of residual stress during curing process. Finite element analysis was performed using ABAQUS software to simulate the CFRP curing process. Both experimental and simulation results showed that the residual stress appeared during cooling process and the residual stresses could be released when the CFRP was machined to a different shape.