Heat transfer and crystallization kinetics in thermoplastic composite processing. A coupled modelling framework

The cooling and solidification of a thick semi-crystalline thermoplastic composite part was investigated. The cooling is driven by the heat conduction equation whereas the crystallization at each position follows a given kinetics. The coupled problem is implemented using finite elements in FreeFem++. In the case of thick part, there is usually a sharp liquid/solid transition. To ensure a fine description, a remeshing criterion is proposed. Simulations were performed in parallel, on a complex 3D geometry with up to 1 million degrees of freedom. A 2D simplified geometry permitted fast screening of the process parameters.