Heat transfer and cure analysis for the pultrusion of a fiberglass-vinyl ester I beam

In the present paper, the heat transfer and curing process during the pultr usion of a fiberglass-vinyl ester I beam is simulated using a finite elemen t/control volume procedure developed at the Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite Structures (CRC-ACS). The governing equations for the p ultrusion process are introduced. The numerical algorithm adapted to solve the equations is briefly described. Numerical simulations are conducted to obtain the temperature and curing profiles for different temperature settin gs and Dull speeds. The predicted temperature profiles are compared with th ose obtained experimentally. Good agreement is observed. The result of the present work enhances our confidence in applying the numerical procedure as a routine design and analysis tool for the pultrusion tooling and process development. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.