THERMAL-MODEL FOR 3-DIMENSIONAL IRREGULAR SHAPED PULTRUDED FIBERGLASSCOMPOSITES

Computer simulation of the manufacturing of pultruded composite materi als has been limited strictly to one or two-dimensional modeling of si mple flat or circular shaped composites. This research presents the mo deling of unsteady-state temperature and degree of cure distributions for the manufacturing of fiberglass-epoxy composite materials with irr egular cartesian geometries in three-dimensions. The model is capable of predicting temperature and degree of cure distributions for composi tes with cartesian shapes in three dimensions, and temperature profile s in pultrusion dies without the aid of predetermined temperature valu es used as die wall boundary conditions. One of the benefits of this m odel is in designing the heating section of pultruder machines. Using a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) the chemical kinetic paramet ers for Shell EPON 9420 epoxy resin were obtained. A finite difference control volume technique was utilized in the development of the numer ical model for solving the governing energy and species equation used in modeling the entire heating section of the pultruder. The combinati ons of pull speed, fiber volume, and die temperature profiles can be m odeled very economically in manufacturing composites for very specific needs. Since this research is not limited in terms of predetermined t emperature values, it can be easily tailored to predict a multitude of temperature profiles suited for a pultrusion process. This research i s also important because it provides realistic modeling of irregular c ross-sectional geometries.