The goal of this investigation was to develop a two-dimensional model which describes the winding and curing processes of filament wound composite structures. The model was developed in two parts. The first part is the cure model which relates the cure temperature, applied at the boundaries of the composite, to the thermal, chemical, and physical processes occurring in the case during cure. For a specified cure cycle, the cure model can be used to calculate the temperature distribution, the degree of cure of the resin, and the resin viscosity inside the composite case. The second part is the layer tension loss and compaction model which relates the winding process variables (i.e., winding pattern, mandrel geometry, initial winding tension, and the properties of the fiber and resin system) to the instantaneous position and tension of the fibers in each layer of the case. A finite element computer code "FWCURE" was developed to obtain a numerical solution to the model. Verification of the cure sub-model was accomplished by measuring the temperature distributions in a 5.75 inch diameter graphite - epoxy test bottle and a 4 inch diameter graphite - epoxy tube during cure. The data were compared with the temperature distributions calculated using FWCURE. Differences between the measured and calculated temperatures was no more than 10 °C for both the test bottle and the cylindrical tube. A parametric study was performed by using FWCURE computer code. Results of the simulation illustrate the information that can be generated by the models and the importance of different processing and material parameters on the fabrication process. / Ph. D.