Carbon foam tooling for aerospace composites manufacturing

Carbon foam is now being investigated for use as a composite tooling material since it can be tailored to be a low cost, durable, light-weight material with low CTE, and has cure process compatibility with aerospace composites. These foams have received increased attention in the aerospace industry because they can now be produced with a wide range of thermo-mechanical properties, including low CTE, and higher service temperatures than polymer foam. This paper is an analytical study of the processing for a simple composite part on a carbon foam tooling. The curing of the composite part is simulated by using a combination of thermal and mechanical modeling. The curing is accompanied by development of residual stresses. The deformation due to these stresses is then simulated by the model.