A Model for Tow Impregnation and Consolidation for Partially Impregnated Thermoset Prepregs
The formation and transport of voids in composite materials remains a key research area in composite manufacturing science. Knowledge of how voids, resin, and fiber reinforcement propagate throughout a composite material continuum from green state to cured state during an automated tape layup process is key to minimizing defects induced by void-initiated stress concentrations under applied loads for a wide variety of composite applications. This paper focuses on modeling resin flow in a deforming fiber tow during an automated process of partially impregnated thermoset prepreg composite material tapes. In this work, a tow unit cell based model has been presented that determines the consolidation and impregnation of a thermoset prepreg tape under an input pressure profile. A parametric study has been performed to characterize the behavior of varying tow speed and compaction forces on the degree of consolidation. Results indicate that increased tow consolidation is achieved with slower tow speeds and higher compaction forces although the relationship is not linear. The overall modeling of this project is motivated to address optimization of the 'green state' composite properties and processing parameters to reduce or eliminate 'cured state' defects, such as porosity and de-lamination. This work is partially funded by the Department of Energy under Award number DE-EE0001367.
- Research Organization:
- University of Delaware and GE Global Research
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0001367
- OSTI ID:
- 1018722
- Report Number(s):
- DE-EE0001367; TRN: US201218%%1391
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: SAMPE 2011, Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach CA, 23-26 May 2011
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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