Heat transfer analysis of the thermoplastic filament winding process

The quality of thermoplastic composites depends on the thermal history duri ng processing. Therefore it is important to determine the temperature distr ibution in the composite during the fabrication process. An ABAQUS transien t heat transfer finite element model of the thermoplastic filament winding process was developed and used to predict the temperature inside the compos ite-mandrel assembly. The model relates the material properties, the windin g speed, and the hot-gas heater temperature to thermal response of the comp osite. The results show that the predicted temperature distributions agree well with the temperature data measured during winding and consolidation.