Modeling and Validation of the Curing Deformation of Large‐Sized CFRP Stiffened Panels

ABSTRACT This study presents a finite element (FE) modeling approach for predicting curing deformation in large‐scale carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) stiffened panels with non‐uniform geometries. A material model coupling thermal‐chemical–mechanical behaviors was developed and subsequently implemented in a FE model tailored to the target geometric configuration. An experimental study was performed on a large non‐uniform stiffened panel, and a QR factorization‐based full‐field deviation analysis was introduced to quantitatively compare predicted and measured deformation fields beyond conventional feature point evaluation. The influence of mesh density and temperature‐dependent material properties on prediction accuracy and computational cost was assessed, showing that the fine‐mesh temperature‐dependent model achieves only an 8.1% deviation in maximum deformation and a 37.62% deviation in the curing deformation field. The proposed method enables accurate prediction of both the magnitude and spatial distribution of curing deformation, providing practical guidance for the manufacturing of composite aerospace structures.