Design method of composite laminates with a controlled coefficient of thermal expansion

A lamination tailoring technique is proposed in order to control the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of carbon/epoxy composites in a principal direction. This technique consists of two concepts of the thermoelastic invariants and lamination parameters. The expansion free condition yields to a parabola in the feasible region of the lamination parameters. The calculated curves for a wide range of temperature intersect almost at a point. A laminate with the construction corresponding to this point exhibits a null CTE in one direction in that temperature range. Experimental results indicate that the procedure is promising. Controlling to a small negative CTE to cancel an extension of metal part is also feasible.