In this article, the dimensional stability of epoxy- and cyanate-based laminates is discussed, focusing on the thermal deformation, moisture-induced deformation, and deformation induced by relaxation of thermal residual stress. Each of the deformations was calculated independently based on the laminate theory. The material properties of the unidirectional laminates were obtained by conducting thermal mechanical analysis, moisture absorption tests, and tensile creep tests. These material properties were adopted to the laminate theory to predict the deformation of quasi-isotropic laminate, and it was calculated that each type of deformation induced micron-level dimensional instability. The moisture-induced deformation was an order of magnitude larger than that caused by the other factors. The validity of the calculations was confirmed by comparing the calculated results with the experimental ones. It is important to control moisture absorption even if cyanate resin, which has high moisture resistance, is used.
In this paper, time-dependent dimensional change in quasi-isotropic laminates induced by relaxation of thermal residual stress and physical aging was predicted by the classical lamination theory. CFRP with pitch-based carbon fiber and cyanate ester resin was chosen for the study. Viscoelastic properties were investigated by performing tensile creep test for unidirectional laminates in the transverse direction. In addition, shrinkage strain induced by physical aging was studied by measuring the strain change of unidirectional laminates as well. Shrinkage strain in off-axis layers was calculated by using the coordinate-transform method. Shrinkage strain in 60° and 45° laminates were measured and the results were compared with the calculation. From the comparison, it was found that shrinkage strain of off-axis layers can be calculated by using the coordinate-transform method. Experimental results were applied to the classical theory in order to predict the time-dependent dimensional change of quasi-isotropic laminates. The strain change in quasi-isotropic laminates was obtained experimentally, and the result was compared with the prediction. It was verified that the time-dependent deformation of quasi-isotropic laminates can be predicted with a -order by using proposed prediction method.
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