Abstract: This paper proposes a thermosetting/thermoplastic hybrid composite structure with variable stiffness characteristics. The hybrid composite structure is based on the continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite CF/PEEK as the basic structural layer and the continuous fiber reinforced thermosetting composite GF/EP as the variable stiffness functional layer. By applying a temperature field to the hybrid composite structure, the elastic modulus of the functional layer material in the structure can be changed, thereby changing the structural stiffness. In this paper, a stiffness regulation method is proposed based on the thermosetting/thermoplastic hybrid composite structure. The method takes the stiffness distribution function of the structure as the optimization goal, the layer distribution of the hybrid composite structure and the temperature vector composed of different heating film temperatures on the structure surface are the optimization variables, and the optimization results are calculated and obtained. According to the optimization results, a customized temperature gradient field is applied to the hybrid composite structure, and the stiffness distribution of the structure can be approximated to show the change of the objective function.

Key words: thermosetting, thermoplastic, hybrid composites, stiffness, regulation method