DETERMINATION OF OPTIMUM PROCESS CONDITIONS FOR PROCESSING AS4/APC-2 THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES BY AUTOMATED FIBER PLACEMENT

摘要

In this study, thermoplastic composite (AS4/APC-2) rings were fabricated using automated fiberplacement technique. To compare the quality of the rings under different process conditions,differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) test was conducted to investigate the crystallinity levelin the samples. Short-beam shear test was performed to demine the interlaminar shear strength.Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique was used to measure ultimate through-the-thicknessstrain. Microscopic photos were used to determine the failure mode. Based on the short-beamstrength results, Taguchi method was employed to identify the significance of each processparameters and to obtain the optimum process conditions.