Monitoring and Heat Transfer Modelling of the Cure of Thermoset CompositesProcessed by Resin Transfer Moulding.

摘要

Experimental studies have demonstrated the existence of significant thermalgradients during the cure stage of Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM). Presence ofsuch thermal gradients can affect the final degree-of-cure distribution andcause the development of residual stresses, leading to a deterioration of thefinal composite component properties. Therefore the incorporation of heattransfer modelling in the general context of RTM modelling and monitoring of theprocess is necessary. The present work focuses on the application of combinedmonitoring and heat transfer modelling to the process. A finite element heattransfer model incorporating resin cure kinetics has been developed and tested.An inverse solution of the heat diffusion model has been implemented in order toextend the local measurements given by in-situ monitoring to global informationabout the temperature distribution and the degree-ofcure distribution during thecure.