Polymer matrix composites are being used to manufacture light weight, high stiffness aircraft structures. These structures are often manufactured from carbon fiber reinforced epoxy. When these structures are damaged, they must be repaired to restore strength to the component to avoid the cost and logistics of having replacements parts. Occasionally, these repairs require tooling in order to make a quality repair, however, tooling generally has a long lead time. Additive manufacturing could be used to manufacture rapid tooling to create tooling for composite repairs. The issue is that polymer printed tooling has a much higher coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) than the composites that are being cured on them. This research investigates the addition of negative CTE fillers in polymers to reduce CTE to more closely match composites to reduce CTE mismatch and part distortion during elevated temperature cure.
","abstract_html":"<p>Polymer matrix composites are being used to manufacture light weight, high stiffness aircraft structures. These structures are often manufactured from carbon fiber reinforced epoxy. When these structures are damaged, they must be repaired to restore strength to the component to avoid the cost and logistics of having replacements parts. Occasionally, these repairs require tooling in order to make a quality repair, however, tooling generally has a long lead time. Additive manufacturing could be used to manufacture rapid tooling to create tooling for composite repairs. The issue is that polymer printed tooling has a much higher coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) than the composites that are being cured on them. This research investigates the addition of negative CTE fillers in polymers to reduce CTE to more closely match composites to reduce CTE mismatch and part distortion during elevated temperature cure.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Miller, Daniel Joseph"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science (MS)","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":"Polymers and High Performance Materials","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Jeffery Wiggins","Sarah Morgan","Sergei Nazarenko"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2015-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:44:27Z","subjects":["Thermal Expansion","composite tooling","Polymer and Organic Materials"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/85","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Jeffery Wiggins","Sarah Morgan","Sergei Nazarenko"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Miller, Daniel Joseph"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-02-18T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Polymers and High Performance Materials"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science (MS)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Thermal Expansion","composite tooling","Polymer and Organic Materials"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/85"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Polymer matrix composites are being used to manufacture light weight, high stiffness aircraft structures. These structures are often manufactured from carbon fiber reinforced epoxy. When these structures are damaged, they must be repaired to restore strength to the component to avoid the cost and logistics of having replacements parts. Occasionally, these repairs require tooling in order to make a quality repair, however, tooling generally has a long lead time. Additive manufacturing could be used to manufacture rapid tooling to create tooling for composite repairs. The issue is that polymer printed tooling has a much higher coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) than the composites that are being cured on them. This research investigates the addition of negative CTE fillers in polymers to reduce CTE to more closely match composites to reduce CTE mismatch and part distortion during elevated temperature cure.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Material Coefficient of Thermal Expansion Investigation for Use in Additive Manufacturing Fused Deposition Modeling for Composite Tooling"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Jeffery Wiggins","Sarah Morgan","Sergei Nazarenko"],"dc:creator":["Miller, Daniel Joseph"],"dc:date.available":["2015-02-18T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Polymer matrix composites are being used to manufacture light weight, high stiffness aircraft structures. These structures are often manufactured from carbon fiber reinforced epoxy. When these structures are damaged, they must be repaired to restore strength to the component to avoid the cost and logistics of having replacements parts. Occasionally, these repairs require tooling in order to make a quality repair, however, tooling generally has a long lead time. Additive manufacturing could be used to manufacture rapid tooling to create tooling for composite repairs. The issue is that polymer printed tooling has a much higher coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) than the composites that are being cured on them. This research investigates the addition of negative CTE fillers in polymers to reduce CTE to more closely match composites to reduce CTE mismatch and part distortion during elevated temperature cure.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/85"],"dc:subject":["Thermal Expansion","composite tooling","Polymer and Organic Materials"],"dc:title":["Material Coefficient of Thermal Expansion Investigation for Use in Additive Manufacturing Fused Deposition Modeling for Composite Tooling"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Polymers and High Performance Materials"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science (MS)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:44:27Z"}