Optimization of thermal model and prediction of crystallinity during the laser-assisted tape winding process

Abstract

Laser-assisted tape placement and tape winding represent the most advanced automated manufacturing technologies for thermoplastic composites. It is important to accurately predict the complete thermal history of the manufacturing process, on which many properties of the product are strongly dependent, such as interlaminar bonding strength and crystallization. In this article, a nonlinear two-dimensional transient heat transfer model was established in ANSYS APDL, and a new temperature closed-loop controlled near-infrared laser heat source was described. Most importantly, the thermal contact pairs were introduced following the activation of elements, and the value of interlaminar thermal contact resistance was obtained by fitting an independent experiment and finite element analysis, which greatly optimized the heat transfer process in the direction of thickness. The thermal model was verified by infrared cameras and an online temperature measuring system based on thermocouples. The results of thermal history are in good agreement with the experiment, which were input into the crystallization kinetics model to predict the evolution and distribution of crystallinity in the laser-assisted tape winding process. The calculated results are coincident with the differential scanning calorimeter test very well, and the crystallinity was about 17% higher than that before manufacturing.