The transverse permeability of roving/tow-based fiber reinforcement is of great importance for accurate flow modeling in the pultrusion process. This study proposes an experimental approach to characterize the roving-based fiber beds' permeability under different compaction conditions. The experimental permeability results of thick roving-based preforms were reported and compared with the permeability values of roving-based preforms in the literature. A representative preform was infused under vacuum conditions. Its thickness was varied to replicate the different compaction values observed in permeability tests. Micrographs were then collected from it and analyzed to highlight the microscale transformations caused by processing/compaction on the fiber arrangement. The analysis revealed that compaction resulted in the reorganization of filaments along the direction of the applied compaction. Overall, the uniformity of the spatial filament distribution, i.e., the homogeneity within the fibrous domain, increased with increasing compaction. Furthermore, the microstructural analysis demonstrated transverse anisotropy within the tested domains, indicating that the obtained permeability results represented an upper boundary. In addition to the experimental analyses, various transverse permeability models, which were developed based on recently introduced statistical descriptors of fiber distribution, were evaluated by using the statistical descriptors extracted from the analyzed cross-sections. Among these models, the one correlating the second neighbor fiber distance with apparent permeability exhibited good agreement with the experimental results. Highlights: Transverse permeability measurement of a roving-based reinforcement was presented. The influence of compaction on the microstructure was investigated at the filament level. Filament distribution in a pultruded profile was analyzed by using statistical descriptors. The results of the experiments and the models in the literature were compared. The correlation between microstructural features and apparent permeability was discussed.

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This study presents a detailed material characterization study of a pultrusion specific polyurethane resin system. Firstly, the chemical behaviour was characterized by utilizing differential scanning calorimetry. The cure kinetics was fitted well to an autocatalytic cure kinetics model with Arrhenius temperature dependency. The resin system did not show any inhibition time. Then, the viscosity evolution was observed using a rheometer. From these measurements, the gelation point was estimated from the criterion of cross-over point of storage and loss modulus curves. The corresponding cure degree of gelation point was found to be 0.79 using the cure kinetics model. The complex viscosity evolution through dynamic scans was predicted well with a cure degree and temperature dependent viscosity model. The elastic modulus and glass transition temperature of fully and partially cured samples were measured by means of DMA in tension mode. A five step cure hardening instantaneous linear elastic model was fitted well to a wide range of cure degree values after gelation. Lastly, the fitted material models were employed in a case study of a typical pultrusion process to visualize the effects of pulling speed on the material property evolution.

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The effect of thermal contact resistance (TCR) correlated to the degree of intimate contact (DIC) between the incoming tape and the substrate on the temperature history during laser-assisted fiber placement (LAFP) was investigated. A novel experimental methodology was designed to understand the effect with a non-contact method which did not influence the local consolidation quality. To assess the influence of TCR numerically, a three-dimensional optical-thermal model was developed. Experimental results indicated that, for the same tape temperature near the nip point, an increase in the compaction force resulted in a decrease in the temperature at the roller exit and the following cooling phase, in correlation with an increase in the final DIC. Also, the effect of the laser power on the final DIC was less pronounced than the compaction force. In the thermal model, when TCR at the tape-substrate interface was not considered, the temperature predictions underestimated the experimental measurements.

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Pultruded fiber-reinforced polymer composites are susceptible to microstructural nonuni-formity such as variability in fiber volume fraction (V_f ), which can have a profound effect on process-induced residual stress. Until now, this effect of non-uniform V_f distribution has been hardly addressed in the process models. In the present study, we characterized the V_f distribution and accompanying nonuniformity in a unidirectional fiber-reinforced pultruded profile using optical light microscopy. The identified nonuniformity in V_f was subsequently implemented in a mesoscale thermal–chemical–mechanical process model, developed explicitly for the pultrusion process. In our process model, the constitutive material behavior was defined locally with respect to the corresponding fiber volume fraction value in different-sized representative volume elements. The effect of nonuniformity on the temperature and cure degree evolution, and residual stress was analyzed in depth. The results show that the nonuniformity in fiber volume fraction across the cross-section increased the absolute magnitude of the predicted residual stress, leading to a more scattered residual stress distribution. The observed V_f gradient promotes tensile residual stress at the core and compressive residual stress at the outer regions. Consequently, it is concluded that it is essential to take the effects of nonuniformity in fiber distribution into account for residual stress estimations, and the proposed numerical framework was found to be an efficient tool to study this aspect.

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The temperature history during the laser assisted fiber placement (LAFP) process is very important since it significantly influences the final quality of the structure. Air pockets between subsequent plies, caused by the lack of intimate contact, act as insulators and reduce the through-thickness heat transfer. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as the inter-ply thermal contact resistance (TCR). So far, the link between the degree of intimate contact, the corresponding TCR and its influence on the thermal history has not been clearly demonstrated specifically for LAFP. The results indicate that TCR influences the cooling period of the process.@en

The resin injection pultrusion is an automated composite manufacturing method in which the resin is injected in a chamber. The flow and the thermo chemical mechanical (TCM) models have been studied for the pultrusion process to improve the reliability of the final products. Flow models are needed to understand and describe the fiber impregnation, filling time and presence of dry spots or voids. Also pressure field in the injection chamber can be estimated with flow models. TCM models are needed to predict residual stress distributions and to optimize the process conditions. A non-uniform fiber distribution strongly affects the results of both types of models. In this study, different strategies are carried out to implement non-uniform fiber distributions into the models. The cross-sectional image and fiber distribution of a 19×19 mm glass fiber reinforced polyester unidirectional pultruded composite is used. Non-uniform fiber distribution is observed and implemented into the flow model by means of permeability variations. The results of this study are compared with uniform fiber distribution results. In the TCM model, the non-uniform fiber volume content is implemented within different sized patches. The results show that the non-uniform fiber fraction should be taken into account for the process models of composites in order to capture the local process induced stresses and probability of dry spots or voids due to poor fiber impregnation.

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The exothermic reaction and overheating during radical polymerization of an Elium® resin and glass fiber reinforced Elium® composites are critically evaluated in this work. The polymerization kinetics of the Elium® resin is obtained by performing differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) scans. The measured data is fit to a temperature and degree of polymerization (DoP) dependent kinetics model. A coupled thermo-chemical process model is developed to predict the temperature evolution and DoP. First, the model is validated with the water bath experiments in which the pure Elium® resin is polymerized at different temperatures (30, 50 and 70 °C). The validated process model is then applied to a vacuum infusion process of glass reinforced Elium® composite laminates with different thicknesses (3.8, 7.5 and 11.3 mm) at room temperature. The produced laminates have the void content lower than 1%. The peak temperature is found to be approximately in the range of 155-160 °C during the water bath experiments. On the other hand, the peak exothermic temperature is approximately 49 °C and 70 °C for 3.8 mm and 11.3 mm thick laminate, respectively. The developed polymerization kinetics model is found to be effective as the predicted temperature evolutions match well with the measured temperatures for different laminates. The effect of laminate thickness and processing teperature on the peak temperature is studied by the developed numerical model. The thermo-chemical process model developed in this work is therefore capable of predicting the polymerization overheating for Elium® composites and can enable the optimization of the manufacturing process to control the thermal and DoP histories.

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Process induced residual stresses are one of the main sources of defects such as (pre) mature matrix cracking during pultrusion of fiber reinforced polymer composite profiles. Recently, comprehensive process models have been developed to understand and describe the underlying mechanisms of the residual stresses in pultrusion processes. The predicted stresses however have not been validated with experimental measurements which are necessary to verify the implemented material models and assumptions in the process models. A hole drilling method with digital image correlation (DIC) is used in the present work to measure the transverse strain relaxation due to material removal in a pultruded thick composite profile (20 × 20 mm) made of unidirectional glass/polyester. The corresponding residual stress state is back calculated using the measured strains in a finite element based numerical model. The estimated level of transverse residual stress in the core of the profile was found to be 6.1 MPa in tension.@en

Process induced stresses inherently exist in fiber reinforced polymer composites particularly in thick parts due to the presence of non-uniform cure, shrinkage and thermal expansion/contraction during manufacturing. In order to increase the reliability and the performance of the composite materials, process models are developed to predict the residual stress formation. The accuracy of the process models is dependent on the geometrical (micro to macro), material and process parameters as well as the numerical implementation. Therefore, in order to have reliable process modelling framework, there is a need for validation and if necessary calibration of the developed models. This study focuses on measurement of the transverse residual stresses in a relatively thick pultruded profile (20×20 mm) made of glass/polyester. Process-induced residual stresses in the middle of the profile are examined with different techniques which have never been applied for transverse residual stresses in thick unidirectional composites. Hole drilling method with strain gage and digital image correlation are employed. Strain values measured from measurements are used in a finite element model (FEM) to simulate the hole drilling process and predict the residual stress level. The measured released strain is found to be approximately 180 μm/m from the strain gage. The tensile residual stress at the core of the profile is estimated approximately as 7-10 MPa. Proposed methods and measured values in this study will enable validation and calibration of the process models based on the residual stresses.

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