MODELING OF HEAT-TRANSFER AND CRYSTALLIZATION KINETICS IN THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES MANUFACTURING - PULTRUSION

Whereas pultrusion with thermoset resins has been widely analyzed, the re is a scarcity of knowledge about pultrusion with thermoplastic resi ns. The aims of this work were to strive towards deeper knowledge of t emperature distribution and degree of crystallinity in the composite d uring processing, to develop a tool for process simulations with a var iety of processing parameters, and to provide input data to models for pressure and matrix flow. The heat transfer model presented herein de scribes the temperature distribution within the composite throughout t he thermoplastic pultrusion process. The transient heat transfer situa tion is modeled one-dimensionally through a transverse cross section f ar from the edges of a high aspect ratio composite. Temperature-depend ent thermal properties, partly non-infinite contact conductance, and h eat contribution from crystallization were taken into consideration. T he degree of crystallinity within the composite was determined as well . The analysis also includes an experimental verification of the heat transfer model. Results show good agreement with experimental data.