Mold Compensation of Enclosed and Rotational Carbon Fiber Composite Parts: Numerical Simulation and Experiment

ABSTRACT Curing‐induced distortion (CID) in carbon fiber‐reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite parts presents a significant challenge in the manufacturing of high‐precision parts. While mold compensation techniques have been widely employed for relatively simple geometries like C‐shaped or V‐shaped parts, their applicability to more complex forms, particularly enclosed, rotational structures, remains inadequately investigated. The intricate CID behavior of these geometries poses substantial challenges to effective mold compensation. This study investigates a global mesh‐based mold compensation strategy tailored for enclosed and rotational CFRP parts. The global mesh‐based compensation (GMC) method is defined as a global deviation correction technique, enabling precise and continuous adjustment of each mesh node via a global compensation factor, k . To address the frequent issue of coordinate system reference drift during the compensation of such geometries, an iterative closest point algorithm is integrated into the GMC framework. Numerical simulations and mold compensation procedures are conducted across several representative configurations, demonstrating notable reductions in CID. Further experimental validation on an air‐intake part confirms the method's efficacy, yielding a 69.4% reduction in maximum CID when compared to an uncompensated mold. The results substantiate the proposed mesh‐based compensation method as a robust, accurate, and practical solution for manufacturing high‐precision enclosed and rotational CFRP parts.