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Temperature Measurement in Autoclave Manufacturing Process for Thick Glass/epoxy Composite Laminate
Abstract
The temperature field in thick thermosetting composite laminate has a significant effect on the residual stresses during the curing process. In this study the temperature distribution of 18.28 mm glass/epoxy composite laminate manufactured by autoclave vacuum bag process were measured. The finite difference formulation of the one-dimensional transient heat transfer problems including internal heat generation was developed to simulate the heat transfer inside the autoclave to the laminated composite. The boundary condition of the laminate part was simulated entirely to consider the asymmetric condition in vacuum bag process. The calculated temperature profile was compared with the experimental result and it was found that the measured temperatures through the thickness agreed well with the numerical values. The overshoot in internal layers led to the temperature and cure gradient which has to be considered for the stress distribution and the final quality of the thick part.
Keywords
Thermal field, Transient finite difference analysis, Thick thermoset composite laminateText