Modeling the Cure Process in Thermosetting Polymers
The cure modeling capabilities:
are intended to model the curing process in adhesives and other polymer materials;
predict the degree of cure, volumetric heat generation, and shrinkage strain due to
curing reactions;
allow you to specify a maximum value of the degree of cure;
are intended for use with existing elastic and viscoelastic behaviors that describe the
mechanical response of the material as a function of the degree of cure; and
Alternatively, Abaqus offers another method of defining the cure model that uses dedicated cure modeling options
and output variables (see Curing Processes in Polymers). This method is more
general and is intended to supersede the capabilities described in this section.
Curing processes are essential to the manufacturing of products that use thermosetting
polymers (such as epoxy resins) to bond components. The use of epoxies and other cured
structural adhesives is common in many industries. As a result of the curing reaction,
chemical shrinkage strains and residual stresses develop, which can result in damage to the
adherends or warpage of the bonded assembly. The Abaqus cure modeling capability enables you to analyze curing processes, including the reaction
kinetics, heat generation, shrinkage strain development, and the evolution of mechanical
properties. The model is based on the work of Lindeman et al. (2021) and Li et al. (2004). You can describe the
reaction kinetics using either the Kamal equation or a conversion rate table. The mechanical
response can include both elastic and viscoelastic effects. You can define the elastic,
viscoelastic, and thermal expansion properties of the material as functions of conversion and
temperature.
The cure model is available as a special-purpose material modeling capability based on
built-in user-defined material options. To activate the capability, the material name must
start with "ABQ_CURE_MATERIAL" and the material definition must include
a user-defined eigenstrain definition. In addition, you must define the cure modeling
coefficients using parameter and property tables with a declared type that starts with
"ABQ_Cure" (as described in the following sections). You must
allocate at least three solution-dependent state variables.
A dedicated collection of parameter and property tables is available to include all of the
definitions required to use the model. You can use the abaqus fetch
utility to obtain the file containing the type definitions for the parameter and property
tables used by the cure
model:
abaqus fetch job=ABQ_Cure_types.inp
Reaction Kinetics
The degree of cure (or conversion) of a material is characterized by a normalized quantity, , with a value changing from 0 (corresponding to the uncured state; that
is, no bonds) to 1 (corresponding to the fully cured material).
The cure reaction kinetics control the rate of conversion, , as a function of and temperature. The Kamal equation provides a well accepted description
of the cure reaction kinetics that is known to produce accurate results, particularly for
epoxy resins. It is given by the following rate form:
where is the number of terms, are rate constants, are activation energies, and are reaction constants, is the absolute zero on the temperature scale used, and is the universal gas constant. The material constants, , are introduced to allow a nonzero initial conversion rate by setting at
least one of them to a small positive value. Alternatively, you can specify a nonzero
initial conversion value, , using initial conditions (see Solution-Dependent State Variables). If you do not define or , the degree of cure (conversion) remains equal to zero throughout the
analysis.
The constant, , controls the maximum degree of cure. By default, . You can define a different value, as described in Maximum Conversion.
In addition to the Kamal equation, you can specify the rate of conversion, , in a tabular format. This format allows you to express the rate as a
function of conversion and, optionally, temperature and field variables:
Curing is an irreversible process; therefore, the value of the degree of cure that Abaqus computes never decreases. The value either increases or remains constant.
Maximum Conversion
In general, the degree of cure can reach a maximum value of 1 (corresponding to a fully
cured material). However, at lower temperatures, the reaction might slow down
considerably, and a fully cured state might not be reached (corresponding to ). You can specify the maximum conversion as a function of temperature.
The default is .
Cure Heat Generation
Curing reactions are irreversible, exothermic processes that are activated by mixing or
heating. The amount of heat released per unit volume per unit time is given by the
relationship:
where is the density, is the specific heat of the reaction, and is the conversion rate.
Cure Shrinkage Strain
During the curing process, the material undergoes permanent shrinkage. The shrinkage is due
to cross-linking because the formation of bonds moves the atoms closer together than in the
unbonded state. The shrinkage and thermal strains that develop during the curing process
result in residual stresses that might cause warpage of the final product. Predicting
residual stress distributions is often one of the main reasons for performing numerical
simulations. You can model the thermal strain using Abaqus capabilities (see Thermal Expansion). The cure shrinkage strain
is expressed in the following general rate form:
where is the cure shrinkage strain, is the shrinkage coefficient matrix, and is the conversion rate. Abaqus supports four forms to specify cure shrinkage coefficients: volumetric, isotropic,
orthotropic, and anisotropic. You can use the orthotropic and anisotropic forms only with
materials where the material directions are defined with local orientations (see Orientations).
The cure shrinkage strains enter the constitutive model in the form of an eigenstrain.
Similar to thermal strains, the cure shrinkage strains are subtracted from the total
deformation to compute the mechanical stress response.
Volumetric Cure Shrinkage Strain
The volumetric cure shrinkage strain is computed from the following rate equation:
In this case you only need to specify one value, , as a function of temperature and field variables.
Isotropic Cure Shrinkage Strain
The isotropic cure shrinkage strain is computed from the following rate equation:
In this case you only need to specify one value, , as a function of temperature and field variables.
Orthotropic Cure Shrinkage Strain
The orthotropic cure shrinkage strain is computed from the following rate equation:
In this case you specify the coefficients in the principal material directions as
functions of temperature and field variables.
Anisotropic Cure Shrinkage Strain
The anisotropic cure shrinkage strain is computed from the following rate equation:
In this case you must specify all six components of the coefficient, , as functions of temperature and field variables.
Mechanical Response of the Material
The mechanical response of the material in the uncured state is typically viscoelastic and,
in the fully cured state, is often viscoelastic. Therefore, the cure modeling capabilities
are typically used in combination with the small-strain viscoelastic modeling capabilities
already available in Abaqus.
Cure-Dependent Material Properties
The elastic and viscoelastic material properties can change considerably as the
cross-linking progresses and the material transitions from the uncured to the cured state.
In general, these material properties depend on the degree of cure. To obtain accurate
results, you must account for this dependency. You can consider the dependency of material
properties on the degree of cure in the model by associating the value of a field variable
with the degree of cure and specifying the material properties as a function of this field
variable (see Specifying Material Data as Functions of Solution-Dependent Variables).
Hedegaard et al. (2021) describe a testing procedure for measuring
viscoelastic properties as a function of temperature and conversion level.
Solution-Dependent State Variables
The cure modeling capability is available as a special-purpose material model that makes
use of solution-dependent state variables
(SDVs) for multiple purposes, such as
defining state variables, initial values of state variables, and output (see Solution-Dependent State Variables). You must allocate at least three solution-dependent state variables. The meaning of the
different SDVs is described in the table
below.
SDV
Label
Description
1
ALPHA
Degree of cure or conversion. The value is between 0 and 1. The value is equal
to 0 if the material is uncured and is equal to 1 if the material is fully cured.
2
ALPHAR
Conversion rate, .
3
DALPHARDT
Derivative of the conversion rate with respect to temperature, .
Optionally, you can specify a nonzero initial value of the degree of cure to trigger the
start of the curing reaction (see Equation 1).
Example: Defining the Cure Modeling Capabilities
This example illustrates defining the cure modeling capabilities in combination with a
typical viscoelastic material definition. The material properties are defined as a function
of the degree of cure using field variable dependency. Field variable 1 is used for the
purpose of the example.
HEADINGINCLUDE, INPUT=ABQ_Cure_types.inp
MATERIAL, NAME="ABQ_CURE_MATERIAL_matName"
DENSITYData lines to specify mass densityELASTIC, DEPENDENCIES=1Data lines to specify linear elastic parametersVISCOELASTICData lines to specify viscoelastic parametersTRS, DEFINITION=TABULAR, DEPENDENCIES=1Data line to specify logarithm of the shift functionEXPANSIONData line to specify thermal expansion coefficientsEIGENSTRAIN, USERPARAMETER TABLE, TYPE="ABQ_Cure_ReactionKinetics_Kamal"
Data line to specify the Kamal model parametersPROPERTY TABLE, TYPE="ABQ_Cure_ShrinkageCoeff_Iso"
Data line to specify the isotropc shrinkage coefficientsCONDUCTIVITYData line to specify the thermal conductivitySPECIFIC HEATData lines to specify the specific heatHEAT GENERATIONPARAMETER TABLE, TYPE="ABQ_Cure_HeatGeneration"
Data lines to define the volumetric heat generation rateUSER DEFINED FIELD, TYPE=SPECIFIED
1, SDV1
DEPVAR
3
1, ALPHA, “Degree of cure”
2, ALPHAR, “Degree of cure rate”
3, DALPHARDT, “Derivative of the rate of degree of cure with respect to temperature”
STEPCOUPLED TEMPERATURE-DISPLACEMENT
Data line to control incrementation and to specify the total time
END STEP
Elements
The cure model supports three-dimensional, plane strain, and axisymmetric continuum
elements that have both displacements and temperatures as nodal variables (see Choosing the Appropriate Element for an Analysis Type).
In addition to the standard output identifiers available in Abaqus (Abaqus/Standard Output Variable Identifiers), the following
variables have special meaning for the cure material model:
SDV1
Degree of cure (conversion), .
SDV2
Rate of degree of cure, .
SDV3
Derivative of the rate of degree of cure with respect to temperature, .
EEIG
Cure shrinkage strain, .
References
Hedegaard, A., E. Breedlove, S. Carpenter, V. Jusuf, C. Li, and D. Lindeman, Time-Temperature-Cure Superposition (TTCS) Methods for Determining
Viscoelasticity of Structural Adhesives During Curing44th Meeting of the Adhesion Society, 2021.
Li, C., Y. Wang, and J. Mason, “The Effects of Curing History on Residual Stresses in Bone Cement During Hip Arthroplasty,” Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, vol. 70B, pp. 30–36, 2004.
Lindeman, D., S. Carpenter, and C. Li, Residual Stress Development During Curing of Structural Adhesives:
Experimental Characterization and Modeling44th Meeting of the Adhesion Society, 2021.