Hello all,

I'm an FE engineer who's done mostly linear structural analysis on Nastran/Patran. I've been currently working one something outside my element with Marc/Mentat on modelling the internal stresses of a laminate as it progresses from a soft prepreg material to a hard cured laminate.

I've figured out how to do most of the non-linear behaviour (stiffness as a function of temperature, etc..) However I am struggling to get a sensible result on the Degree of Cure..

I've setup a few tables that define the cure rate. Mainly Cure Rate as a function of Temperature AND a function of degree of cure.

I've noticed that MARC does not set an upper limit on the degree of cure (meaning it can exceed the value of one), which is nonsense..

My first impression is that degree of cure should be proportional to the amount of heat absorbed by the laminate, but I noticed that the input "Specific Heat" and "Total Heat of reaction" has no impact on the degree of cure. If so, what units is the curing rate parameter?

Therefore my question is, has anyone got any pointers on how to best set up the model to get a convergence of Degree of Cure to = 1?

Sorry if that was a long question, thank you in advance.