Analysis of the development of isotropic residual stresses in a bismaleimide/spiro orthocarbonate thermosetting resin for composite materials

In this article, we extend our model of isotropic residual stress development in thermosets to a novel thermosetting resin system: bismaleimide/spiro orthocarbonate. In this system, the cure shrinkage and resulting isotropic residual stresses are reduced through a ring-opening reaction that occurs independently of the addition reaction. The modeling effort includes a parametric analysis of the effects of various parameters, including the volume changes involved in the reactions, the relative rates and orders of the reactions, the cure history, and the values of the bulk moduli and thermal expansion coefficients. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.