Review of curing deformation control methods for carbon fiber reinforced resin composites

Abstract Under the influence of extrinsic curing conditions and intrinsic properties of carbon fiber reinforced resin composites, the formation of curing deformation is inevitable, which makes the shape of the manufactured components differ from the designed structure, and even exceeds the assembly tolerance, resulting in the scrap of parts. Therefore, it is very urgent and important to optimize the curing deformation of carbon fiber reinforced resin composites. In this paper, the mechanism of stress and curing deformation is reviewed firstly, and then the factors affecting the curing deformation are summarized. In particular, from the point of view of materials in curing process, three curing deformation control strategies, including (i) reinforcement structure optimization, (ii) resin modification and process optimization, (iii) die surface compensation and tool‐part contact optimization, were proposed. And with the development of curing deformation simulation technology, the (iv) inverse design strategy before curing and (v) hot sizing method from the view of after cured were further put forward, respectively. By analyzing the link between processing details and curing deformation, it is found that the dominant factor affecting deformation may change under different conditions, so the interaction between factors needs to be further discussed. Subsequently, the effect of these distortion control methods on curing deformation was analyzed and evaluated, and the shortcomings were pointed out. Finally, the challenges existed in curing deformation research were identified, in order to contribute to the development of curing deformation research.