Parametric Study on Heat Transfer for Tow Placement Process of Thermoplastic Composite

Fiber placement process of thermoplastic material is an in situ consolidation process which can significantly reduce consolidation process time and save costs compared with autoclave consolidation. The heat and crystallization behaviours play very critical role in the quality control during the process. In this work, two dimensional model of finite element is presented to perform heat transfer analysis of fiber placement process. The relationship between heat distribution of lamination and process parameters, including roller velocity, main heating temperature, preheating temperature, preheating length and preheating location, is deeply investigated. The numerical results show that for certain heating temperature there is a safe roller velocity which should not be exceeded, and such parameters as main heating length, preheating length and preheating location could be optimized to obtain better quality of product.