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This study contributes to the understanding of the thermo-chemical processes occurring in the cure of polymer composites, especially in thick structures. During the manufacturing process, thermo-chemical properties of the material undergo considerable changes and are affected by a high number of factors. Therefore, the main part of this analysis is the improvement of the strategy and the experimental study of the material properties behavior during the manufacturing process of the polymer composite. The thermo-chemical properties, simulation of the cure process and the calculation of the optimal production cycle of thick polymer composite structures are executed by a specialized computer-measuring system. The results of the study of the thermo-chemical properties during the curing of polymer composites and optimal cure cycles for industrial applications of thick structures manufacturing are presented.

The paper explores the technological problems that occur in the manufacturing of thick-walled polymer composite products. A detailed causal analysis of technological problems was carried out. We found the most vulnerable stages of the technology and outlined the ways to resolve them based on the method of mathematical modeling and optimization. The method allows to calculate the temperature-conversion fields during the curing of polymer composites and to choose the right optimization strategy of technological process molding.

This paper addresses the problem of constructing a subsystem of informational decision-making support for choosing the optimal method and algorithm for calculating the thermophysical properties of polymer composites, which allows minimizing the error in determining properties under given experimental conditions. The subsystem is based on a modified hierarchy analysis method. It is built on the alternative use of four algorithms for the calculation of thermophysical properties and is included as a module in the application software of an intelligent data-measuring device for studying the curing process of polymer composites. Using simulation modeling, an assessment of the possibility of using algorithms for calculating thermophysical properties under various combinations of experimental conditions was made. The structure, composition, principles of construction, purpose, capabilities and parameters of the main modules of the applied software of the data-measuring device are described.